Valkyrie Potter: Pokemon Journey
by BloodyKitsune1997
Summary: Had you told Valkyrie 'Vali' Rosebud Potter that she'd end up transported to another world as a Eight year old due to an outburst of accidental magic mixing horribly with a patronus charm, time turner, and the presence of dementors, she would've considered it for a few moments before saying that her luck wasn't that bad. Fully summary inside. Rate M to be safe
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **Summary:** **Had you told Valkyrie 'Vali' Rosebud Potter that she'd end up transported to another world as a Eight year old due to an outburst of accidental magic mixing horribly with a patronus charm, time turner, and the presence of dementors, she would've considered it for a few moments before saying that her luck wasn't that bad. Of course, she would be underestimating just how much the Potter family luck could possibly do in situations like this. As a result, Vali ended up in another world filled with odd creatures. Thankfully, she had Sirius with her and they managed to survive with a little help.** **Sirius gained a wife and she gained a mother and brother. Having to adjust to pokemon wasn't that hard, she was actually eager to become a trainer. A life of adventure, companionship, and so much else? Sign her up. Dealing with criminal organizations, legendaries, and harsh realities? Not so much. Rated M to be safe.**

 **BloodyKitsune1997: I am not abandoning my other stories. Updates will be sparse with this story. Hope you guys enjoy this as much as my other two stories**

* * *

Chapter one

* * *

Vali groaned softly as she slowly came to feeling far colder than she had been moments before. She could remember the terrifying moment that the time-turner shattered against her skin as her flickering patronus turned into a supernova due to the intense amount of magic she'd conjured up due to her panic at the thought of losing the only family member that seemed to care for her. She took a deep breath and winced as sharp chilly air hit her lungs. Shivering, Vali opened her emerald green eyes and gasped softly. The world was covered in a blanket of white snow. She heard a low groan from near her and turned her head to see Sirius slowly sitting up. She watched his eyes scan the world around them and widen as she struggled to deal with the massive amount of emotions swirling through her. Sirius' eyes settled on her and he gasped out, "Pup?"

"S-Sir-" Vali cut herself off as she heard the soft and definitly childish voice that definitly didn't belong to a thirteen nearly fourteen year old girl.

"Pup, you look younger," Sirius told her with wide eyes.

Vali felt panic start to rise above the mass of swirling emotions. She felt tears prick at her eyes with as her throat tightened. She struggled to keep it back, but a strangled sob worked it's way through her throat. She felt arms wrap around her and lift her into a hug. She burrowed her head into Sirius' neck as she struggled with her emotions, "Siri..."

"Let it out, Pup," He shushed her, "Just let it out,"

The words she'd always wanted to hear, but had never heard before caused her to finally let loose the tears she'd kept back for most of her life. Sirius murmured soothing words of comfort and rocked her gently. When the tears slowly came to a stop and her sobs died to soft hiccups, Vali pushed against Sirius' shoulders and shivered softly as she looked around them, "W-where are we?"

"I have no idea," Sirius looked around as well, "But we'll figure it out,"

Vali nodded slowly while sniffling softly, "O-okay."

Sirius frowned as he put her down and slowly stood up while looking around, "Let's start by finding some sort of civilization and get somewhere warm to stay for the night though we should probably change into something warmer."

"Yeah," Vali rubbed at her eyes, "How?"

Sirius stuck his hands into his pockets before drawing out a wand that she recognized to be Professor Lupin's. He waved it and frowned as it only sparked weakly, "That's not good, but it will work for now."

Once they were both dressed in something better suited to the cold weather and Vali's wand was secured in a bag that Sirius carried, they set out in a random direction.

* * *

Delia Ketchum was making her way home with Professor Oak carrying her two year old son. The snow was coming down heavily and the Professor hadn't thought it would be a good idea for them to go home alone. The Professor's Arcanine walked with them providing warmth and light. Arcanine stopped walking for a moment and let out a whine causing Professor Oak to frown, "Arcanine, what's wrong?"

The canine let out a whine and paced slightly earning concerned looks from the two conscious humans, "Professor?"

"Let's check it out, it's probably a pokemon that got caught outside," Professor Oak decided before turning to his pokemon, "Arcanine, show us what's bothering you,"

The pokemon took off with them following him. Soon enough, the large fire type was digging in the snow and breathing out a few embers to melt the snow. Delia let out a gasp as she realized what the fire type had found, "People! Professor!"

"Quickly Arcanine, dig them out," The Professor took out a few pokeballs and released the pokemon inside, "Charizard, we have two people unconscious in the snow. Help Arcanine get them out. Alakazam, take Delia and Ash home before coming back here. We need to get these two out of the snow and to the lab,"

Delia wanted to protest, but knew she needed to get Ash inside quickly. Alakazam nodded slowly and reached out towards the two humans as Charizard began helping to melt the snow while taking great care to avoid burning the humans currently laying in it unconcious. Delia looked at the Professor and said, "Tell me what happens."

"I will," The Professor promised, "Now go,"

Delia inwardly sighed, but nodded to the powerful psychic-type.

* * *

As Vali slowly floated within the blissful serenity and warmth of her unconsciousness, she got flashes of what had happened before she'd ended up in this black abyss. Snow had begun to fall as Sirius and her had tried to find civilization. She had begun to get tired the more she walked. It seemed like the snow was sapping her strength with each step along with any warmth in her body. Eventually, she couldn't walk any longer and Sirius had picked her up after she'd stumbled for the fourth time. Even without any contact with the snow save for what was falling, the strength in her body was being sapped alongside the warmth with each breath of the chilled air. With each breath she took, knives of cold air stabbed into her lungs until it felt like she couldn't breath.

She couldn't remember anything after that and wondered what had happened to Sirius. Panic disrupted the serenity and she began to struggle to awaken. Sirius, what had happened? Did he get hurt? Eventually, she managed to pull herself from unconsciousness. She struggled to open her eyelids which felt like lead. Once she managed it, Vali found herself staring at a dark ceiling and turned her head slowly to see that the entire room was dark. The only source of light in the entire room came from a thin crack under the door. Slowly struggling to sit up, Vali tried not to cry out at the pain that ran through her as she moved her lead filled limbs. She had to take a small break once she sat up because of how tired she felt from that simple movement. Eventually, she managed to regain her strength and began moving towards the edge of the bed.

A soft cry left her as her body impacted the ground and pain ran through her limbs. She stayed there for a few moments as she tried to push back the tears that gathered in her eyes from the pain. As soon as the pain faded away enough, she worked on picking herself up and began the slow stumbling walk towards the door. She leaned against the wall beside it for a few moments to take a few deep deep breaths and regain the strength it had taken her to reach this point. She listened for any sound and couldn't find anything. She looked at the door handle and reached up to grab it. Twisting the handle, she carefully pulled open the door and flinched as bright light assaulted her eyes. Shutting them, she waited for the brightness to become less painful before opening them again to take in the world outside the room.

She found herself in a hallway. Rich looking brown wood covered the floor and a small portion of the wall. Cream colored paint covered the walls where paintings or photos didn't. She looked down the hallway and spotted a door. Moving towards it, she was almost halfway there when something spoke. It didn't come from a discernible direction which made her stiffen, " _Child, you should be resting. My master had the lizard and the dog free you from the snow in order to provide medical care. Do not waste his efforts."_

"Sirius," Vali murmured, "Where is Sirius?"

The voice took on a softer tone and Vali could pick out vaguely feminine hints to it, " _The odd man that was with you is in another room. Will you rest if I take you to see him?"_

Vali nodded as rapidly as she could, "Y-yes. Please, I need to see Sirius."

The voice spoke in a resigned tone, " _Very well. I will take you to the odd man before returning you to bed and informing my master that you have awakened."_

Vali was about to thank the voice when something picked her up. It felt like there was nothing stable holding her up, but some kind of force seemingly defying gravity. She tried to twist only for the force to keep her still, "W-what is this?"

The voice took on a curious tone, " _An ability that many psychics can use though it is harder for the human psychics to obtain the ability to do more than life small object."_

"Psychics?" Vali murmured as the force levitated her down the hall past the room she'd been heading for, "What do you mean?"

" _Humans and pokemon with psychic type abilities. Psychic type pokemon are far stronger than any humans though some have managed to become as powerful as some of us,"_ The voice replied only making her feel confusion, " _Do you not know what psychic-types are?"_ Vali shook her head, " _What about pokemon?"_ Vali shook her head again, " _This is a disturbing notion. No one within this world doesn't know what pokemon are._ _Pokemon are creatures of all shapes and sizes who live in the wild or alongside humans like myself. We are able to use abilities using our innate energies that most humans cannot. Pokemon grow stronger through battle though having humans train us allows us to grow stronger faster and gain new heights of strength that our wild brethren cannot. Humans like my master are known as Trainers who capture pokemon and train them. My master also studies pokemon and is known as a Professor due to his knowledge of the subject,"_

"Capture?" A feeling of disgust ran through her, "Isn't that wrong?"

 _"No, it is the way of things and many pokemon choose to be captured,"_ The voice, a pokemon, said, " _While there are those that do not really wish to be captured, they soon realize the benefits. Those that do not like it eventually end up released back into the wild,"_

Vali didn't really like the idea, but pushed that out of her mind, "What are you?"

 _"I am an Alakazam,"_ The voice informed her, " _I am a psychic-type pokemon,"_

"Don't you have a name of your own?" Vali asked earning a soft hum.

 _"No though some of those trained by humans are given nicknames,"_ Alakazam replied, " _I did not want one even if my master offered it,"_ Vali found herself in front of a door which was opened by a soft blue glow, " _The odd man is in here. Would you allow me to look into your memories? It will fill some blanks and allow my master to help you,"_

Vali hesitated for a few moments before asking, "Only the ones you need?"

 _"Yes,"_ Alakazam replied and Vali granted her agreement, " _I will wait until after you've seen the odd man and I've taken you back to bed,"_

Vali nodded and found herself being deposited gently onto a bed. The lights flickered on and Vali gasped as she took in her godfather. Sirius looked like death warmed over. Vali reached out with a clumsy hand and touched his cheek which was very warm to the touch. Vali spoke, "He has a fever."

 _"He will be fine,"_ Alakazam informed her, " _It is lucky that we pulled you both out of the snow when we did. You were worse off than him, but that is due to how young you are. Though for some reason, you've recovered faster than him. He will be very weak for a few days, but should recover so long as he listens,"_

Vali nodded slowly feeling herself starting to get tired, "Thank you."

 _"It is no problem, Child,"_ Alakazam murmured as it lifted her with psychic and carried her from the room after shutting off the lights, " _You will likely fall asleep very soon,"_

Vali's eye lids fell closed as her consciousness wavered. She felt herself being placed on something soft and slowly fell asleep.

* * *

Vali woke up feeling something rough and wet brushing against her cheek. Trying to move away from the source didn't do anything as the licking moved to follow her movement, she felt something soft and warm press against her cheek. With a giggle, Vali tried to move beneath the blanket as she opened her eyes only for a soft orange and cream muzzle to follow her. Finally, she pushed up the blanket as she said, "Okay, okay, I'm awake."

She jolted at the creature that barked at her as its fluffy tail wagged and its tongue lolled out of its mouth. It looked kind of like a tiger with its orange and black striped fur. Orange tinted cream fur covered it's chest and tail. A tuft of the orange tinted cream fur came from its head. She stared at the creature before smiling as it padded closer to her. She reached out and let it sniff her fingers before giggling as it licked them. She jolted as it pressed closer and she carefully began to scratch behind it's ears earning a soft whine of pleasure. She heard a soft laugh, "Growlithe, where are you?"

The creature yipped prompting her to realize it was Growlithe, "So you're a Growlithe?"

The creature, Growlithe, barked as the door opened and a girl with brown hair entered. She paused as her dark viridian eyes widened before she grinned brightly, "You're awake! Grandpa will be so happy. My names Daisy Oak."

"Vali," Vali replied as Growlithe nuzzled into her hands.

"Growlithe seems to like you," Daisy noted with a smile earning a small nod from Vali, "You don't talk much, do you?"

Vali frowned slightly before giggling as Growlithe butted its head into her chest prompting her to resume her scratching, "I...Where am I?"

"You're in my grandpa's lab," Daisy informed her making Vali recall what Alakazam had said something about her master being a Professor, "I should go tell him you're awake. Growlithe, do you want to stay with her or come with me?"

Growlithe barked and settled down against Vali, "I guess it want's to stay with me."

"He," Daisy corrected before nodding, "Yeah. I'll be back soon. Grandpa's checking on the guy that was with you,"

Daisy disappeared through the door as Vali wondered how Sirius was. While Alakazam had said he'd recover, Vali wasn't sure how he currently was. She hoped that he would wake up soon. Growlithe let out a whine and Vali shook her head lightly while giving the pokemon her attention. She wondered what type he was though something about the heat radiating off of him made her think of fire. Growlithe enjoyed her scratches and kept her from thinking about Sirius long enough for the door to open. Growlithe yipped as he jumped off of the bed and rushed over to the door where an old man stood. He looked younger than Dumbledore, but he certainly wasn't young. His black eyes focused on her as he bent down to scratch behind Growlithe's ears, "I'm glad to see you're awake. My name is Professor Samule Oak. How are you feeling?"

Vali thought about the question before saying, "Tired and kind of cold."

"Any pain?" Professor Oak asked as he walked further into the room and Growlithe got back up onto the bed.

Vali nodded slowly, "A small amount. I mostly feel tired though."

"Well that's good," Professor Oak smiled at her, "It seems like Growlithe likes you," Vali nodded as the pokemon cuddled up against her, "What's your name?"

"Vali," Vali answered softly, "Valkyrie Potter,"

"And the name of the man that we found you with?" Professor Oak asked.

"Sirius Black," Vali hugged Growlithe to her chest, "He's my godfather. Is he alright?"

"He hasn't woken up yet, but he should soon," Professor Oak told her before sighing, "Alakazam told me about the memories she observed with your permission, but I'm having a bit of trouble believing it," Vali just stared at him, "How is it that you managed to transport yourself to this world?"

Vali battled with herself for a few moments. Magic wasn't supposed to be talked about with non-magicals outside of family, but this wasn't the world she came from. After a few moments, she replied, "I...I don't know. My magic reacted."

Professor Oak frowned, "Can you think of any reason why your 'magic' would react that way?"

"I was scared...I was so scared of losing Sirius so soon after finding him and the fact that the demons trying to take him from me were going to take my soul as well," Vali's fingers clenched, "Fear and panic as my patronus began to fail. Knowing that I was going to die and lose my godfather," Vali's mind flashed back to that moment, "I suppose my magic reacted to my will for us to live and get away from the demons. I suppose it also reacted to my wish to be free," She closed her eyes, "Among my people, there is a thing known as accidental magic which occurs within children during times of duress, I suppose I managed to tap into it. No one really knows what all magic can do,"

"But that doesn't explain you being deaged or your god-father," Professor Oak pointed out.

"The time-turner," Vali remembered it shattering, "I don't know what it was exactly, but it allowed people to travel an hour at most back in time,"

"Why did you have it?" Professor Oak asked her curiously.

"For my classes," Vali told him remembering McGonagall's speech to Hermione and her, "I took two that were at the same time,"

Professor Oak nodded as Vali's eyes grew heavy again and he seemed to notice her tiredness, "You should get some rest. I will send Daisy back in here to bring you something to eat later. Growlithe," The pokemon blinked at him, "Do you wish to stay here?" Growlithe yipped and snuggled against her as Vali slowly began to lay back down, "Alright. Wake her up when Daisy comes back."

* * *

Sirius woke up the day after Vali's first conversation with Professor Oak though he was too weak to move. After making sure Vali was alright, Sirius had spent time speaking with Oak both about their world and the new world they'd found themselves in. Daisy spent time introducing Vali to various pokemon around the Professor's lab though Vali's personal favorites were the fire types. They were so warm and she felt a connection to them though she couldn't really explain it. Growlithe was a constant companion alongside Daisy when the female Oak wasn't helping take care of her two year old brother. It was about two days after Sirius woke up that the other person that had found them came to the Oak residence with her two year old son.

* * *

Vali was cuddling Growlithe as Daisy played with her younger brother, Gary. Gary was kind of sweet though he seemed a bit jealous of Vali for being so close to Growlithe. The TV was broadcasting the latest news in Hoenn region's contest circuit. Vali could see the appeal of contests though admitted she liked pokemon battles a bit more. Daisy looked up as the doorbell rang, "I'll go get it. Gary, Stay."

Daisy got up and rushed towards the door as Gary walked over to the couch. Gary pulled himself up and reached towards Growlithe. The puppy pokemon blinked at Gary before yipping and padding over to the toddling child. Vali watched the boy with a slight smile as she asked, "Gary, what's your favorite pokemon?"

"Growlithe," The boy answered as he hugged the puppy pokemon, "I love his evolved form Arcanine too,"

After meeting Professor Oak's Arcanine, Vali could understand. Vali looked back at the screen as it showed a reply of a rising star in the contest circuit. Daisy soon returned with a woman following after her. Vali took her eyes off the screen to look at the woman as Daisy spoke, "Miss Ketchum, this is Vali. She the kid-"

"You're alright!" Vali flinched at how loud the brown haired woman's voice was before finding herself being pulled into a tight hug.

Vali stiffened at the contact before beginning to try and push away from the woman. Panic at the surprising touch filled her as she found herself trapped causing a whine to slip from her lips. Vali found herself across the room as a loud pop sounded. Ignoring the feeling of her stomach rebelling and her sudden tiredness, Vali ran from the room as fast as possible as memories of the last time an adult had gotten that close to her when she was last this age. By the time her panic began to fade and she fell to her knees to puke up the food she'd eaten, Vali found herself in the indoor fire-type enclosure Professor Oak had. As she finished puking, she heard a whine and turned her head to find Arcanine standing there with a few other fire types. She stumbled to her feet as she murmured, "I'm sorry for startling you."

Black spots invaded her vision as she began to topple over.

* * *

Delia looked up at Professor Oak as he placed a cup of tea in her hands, "I didn't think I'd startle her. I just wanted to express how glad I was that she was okay..."

"I know, Delia," Professor Oak sighed deeply as he sat down across from her, "But from what Alakazam could glean from the memories of her childhood, the reaction she had was justified. Give her time,"

"I'll try," Delia flinched as she remembered the fear filled eyes that had stared at her before the girl had darted from the room like a frightened Rattata, "I just...Professor, she looked so scared,"

Professor Oak took a sip of his tea, "To be honest, Delia. I think the fact she ended up transporting to another world so diffrent from her own just after facing creatures that could have eaten her soul is hitting her. The fact she was deaged to seven years old isn't helping."

Delia closed her eyes and drank some tea before asking, "What do we do?"

"For now, she needs to get an understanding of the world around her and be introduced to new things slowly," Professor Oak began as he leaned back against his seat, "She needs to be around Sirius as well. He's the only staple from her former world other than their wands,"

Delia nodded slowly, "Do you think that if I took things slow that she wouldn't react badly?"

Professor Oak nodded slowly, "Yes, but don't try to touch her. Treat her like an abused pokemon only less volatile."

"Is that why you allow Growlithe to stay with her?" Delia asked earning a nod from the pokemon professor.

"It's also due to the fact Growlithe likes her," Professor Oak replied with a small smile.

* * *

Vali and Sirius stayed with Professor Oak for the rest of winter learning about this new world. Sirius spent much of his time speaking with league officials and doing most of the tests Professor Oak had. Delia was a constant and Vali slowly warmed up to her. Vali did have to go through some tests, but they weren't too bad especially since she got to meet more pokemon. When spring came, Sirius and Vali were granted identification for this world with Kanto listed as their home region and Pallet Town their home. Sirius didn't like the idea of capturing pokemon, but wanted to work with them. The Kanto sect of the ranger union offered to allow him to join them and he took the offer at Vali's prompting. He was given a Houndour as a partner and began training to become an effective ranger.

Delia offered to take Vali into her home and with a bit of reluctance, the witch accepted knowing that Sirius would feel better about it. Delia made sure that Vali felt at home with her and didn't attempt to act like Vali's mother. She was patient and let Vali move at her own pace which allowed the displaced witch to get comfortable. With Vali's interest in pokemon and the young girl needing to catch up to those in her age group, Delia taught Vali when she didn't have to be at her restaurant before dropping her off with Ash at the Oak residence. Sirius had done a spell to figure out their ages a bit after they'd arrived and they had discovered that Vali was eight and Sirius was 30.

Life was better than ever and Vali could honestly say that she was thankful for what had happened. About a year after they arrived, Vali and Sirius discovered that their wands no longer functioned though they could still use their magic even if it was harder. Vali took apart her wand with the help of Professor Oak and created a necklace out of the phoenix feather that had been it's core. Sirius merely kept Remus' wand as a memento to his old friend in a case that he always carried with him. Vali loved Sirius' Houndour which the man had named Regulus though the man hadn't said why he'd chosen that specific name. Regulus loved Vali and spent most of the time when Sirius was in Pallet town with Vali alongside Growlithe whenever the puppy pokemon managed to get out of Professor Oak's lab to find her.

* * *

Everyone was gathered at the Oak families dinning room two month's before Vali's tenth birthday eating dinner. Daisy looked at Vali curiously, "Hey, Vali. What are you going to do when you turn ten?"

"Oh, right!" Delia snapped her fingers, "You're turning ten in two months."

"Do I have to do something?" Vali asked in confusion putting down her fork.

"Well, you have managed to catch up with your age group fairly quickly," Professor Oak said looking at the witch with a slight smile, "The only thing you're missing at the moment is a bit of technical and practical knowledge,"

Sirius spoke as Vali fidgeted slightly at the attention, "Pup, what do you want to do?"

Vali frowned as she thought about it, "I think I want to become a trainer, but I don't think I want to travel alone with just a pokemon. Or at least, not at first. But I don't know how I can get a traveling partner since most of the other kids around my age don't really want to become trainers or don't really like me."

Sirius frowned at her words, "They don't like you?"

"They think I'm odd especially since I've only recently started going to classes with them," Vali's nose scrunched up, "Not to mention, most of them are immature,"

Professor Oak spoke after a few moments, "I might have a solution for your problem, Vali," Everyone looked at the Professor save for the two three almost four year olds, "The pokemon leagues of Hoenn and Kanto are trying to increase the amount of skilled trainers for each league. To do so, they're offering trainers that place within the top ten of the conferences a chance to travel to another region. I won't go into many details other than the trainer that accept are being given a few perks such as an increased limit of the pokemon they're allowed to carry, a starter from the region they're traveling to, and some extra money on their trainer account," Professor Oak looked pleased about it, "One of the trainers will be arriving a day after your birthday and might be willing to travel with you. From what I've seen and heard about him, he's a rather pleasant young man with a powerful team."

Sirius had looked okay with the idea until he heard the word man. He went to say something only for Delia to elbow him before she turned to Vali, "I think that would be a nice idea, Vali."

"I don't know..." Vali frowned slightly.

"How about this," Delia smiled at her in encouragement, "We get you ready to go on your journey and on the day the young man arrives, you meet him. If you don't like him, you don't travel with him and wait until you feel ready to travel alone. If you like him and get along with him, you start your journey with him,"

Vali thought about it before saying, "Alright."

Delia beamed at Vali making the young witch's chest feel warm. Vali slowly smiled back before looking at Daisy as the girl asked, "So what starter do you want?"

"I want a fire type," Vali decided earning a snort from Sirius and amused looks from the other adults, "A Charmander though I kind of want to go to Johto at some point to get a Cyndaquil," Vali smiled as she thought of the fire mouse pokemon, "I really like them,"

"Do you want to become a fire-type master, Vali?" Professor Oak asked her with a raised eyebrow.

Vali flushed while shaking her head, "No. I love fire types, but I like a lot of diffrent pokemon too."

Sirius let out a bark-like laugh and said, "Well, I can tell you that fire types definitely love you."

As if agreeing with his statement, Growlithe entered the dinning room and got onto Vali's lap earning a few laughs from the table. Vali scratched behind the puppy pokemon's ears with a soft smile.

* * *

A few days before Vali turned ten, Ash walked into the room Delia had gifted her. She was getting her bag prepared for her journey, but paused when she spotted Ash. Looking at the little boy she often helped Daisy watch, Vali asked, "What's up, Ash?"

"You're really going to become a pokemon trainer?" Ash asked her curiously earning a nod, "Why?"

The question struck a cord in Vali and she actually thought about why she wanted to become a trainer. She resumed putting her things into her bag, "For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to travel. Back in my old world, it was a way to become free. Here, I want to see what this world has to offer and maybe see if I can find out just how Sirius and I ended up here. I also want to see how far I can go and what kind of pokemon I'll end up getting on my team."

"Will you come back?" Ash asked her curiously.

"Of course," Vali was baffled about why Ash would even ask that, "Why wouldn't I?"

Ash flushed slightly as he said, "Because you never call this place your home."

Vali put down the shirt she had been folding and looked at Ash, "Ash just because I've never said it out loud doesn't mean that Pallet town isn't home."

"What if you find someplace else you want to live?" Ash asked with a frown.

Vali's eyebrows pinched together at that question, "Even if I do, I'll still come back. What's wrong, Ash?"

"I don't want you to leave," Ash admitted after a few moments, "I want you to stay here with mom and I,"

Smiling softly at Ash, Vali reached out and pulled him into a hug, "Ash, I can't stay here forever since there's a big world out there with so many things to offer. When you turn ten, you'll understand and want to leave too. It's a part of growing up."

"I don't wanna grow up," Ash muttered earning a soft laugh from Vali.

Vali shook her head lightly. She glanced at her bag and said, "Ash, how about I make you a promise?" He looked at her curiously, "When you turn ten and become a trainer, I'll be your traveling partner. In the mean time, you have to study hard and be good for your mom."

"You'll really travel with me?" Ash asked with wide eyes earning a nod.

"I'll even give you a pokemon," Vali promised earning a grin, "But, in order for me to give you a pokemon, you have to do well when you start going to school, okay? If you do that, I'll give you a pokemon,"

"Promise?" Ash asked earning a nod.

"Pinkie promise," Vali held up a hand and Ash linked their pinkies, "Now, I need to continue packing,"

"You still have a few days before you're going to start your journey if you like the person Professor Oak talked about," Ash protested earning a laugh from Vali.

She picked up her shirt again and began folding it, "If I pack now, I can make sure I have everything I need. I also have this list," Vali finished folding the shirt and put it into her bag before picking up the list, "Everything Professor Oak, your mom, Sirius, and the message boards say any good trainer needs is on here. The pokemon food and the trainer meals will wait until the day before I go on my journey so that I can make sure they're as fresh as possible."

"Aren't trainer meals icky?" Ash asked with a scrunched up nose.

Vali thought about the simple meals. They were kind of like granola bars from her old world only bigger than the thin bars she remembered. They were specifically created by the Pokemon Leagues to make sure a trainer could stay healthy while outside of populated areas. They were somewhat bland, but not as bad as some of the things she'd eaten before. Vali shook her head, "While they're a bit bland, they aren't the worst possible thing you could eat. I read on one of the message boards that you can make them taste better with honey, berry juice, moo moo milk, or pieces of berry. Professor Oak let me try one a few days ago."

"Do you think he'd let me try one?" Ash asked her curiously.

Vali thought about it before shaking her head, "I don't think so. They're meant for older kids and adults rather than kids around your age."

Ash pouted making Vali laugh earning a scowl and elbow to her side. Vali caught him around the waist and began tickling him earning shrieks of laughter from the boy. Vali looked up as Delia asked, "What is going on here? Ash, you should be asleep."

"I wanted to see what Vali was doing," Ash said as Vali stopped tickling him.

"He was pouting," Vali replied earning a smile from Delia.

"You should go get ready for bed," Delia advised earning a pout from Ash.

Ash put up some protest, but eventually left. Vali smiled softly as she watched him go before turning back to her packing while feeling glad about the technological advances this world had. There was no way people could pack enough food to last a month for not only a human being, but multiple pokemon especially if said pokemon had monstrous appetites. Noticing that Delia hadn't left, Vali asked, "Is something wrong?"

"You've grown a lot since you came to this world," Delia said making Vali flush a bit, "Seeing you getting ready to go on your journey just makes it more evident,"

"Everyone has to grow up sometime," Vali commented before saying, "Thank you...for everything. I know it can't be easy to look after a kid like me along with Ash even if Sirius is sending money to help out. I know that I caused a lot of trouble back during those first few months..."

"I would do it all over again," Delia told Vali as she walked into the room, "You're an amazing person, Vali. I'm just glad that I got to see you become this person,"

Vali smiled softly as she looked down at the shirt in her hands, "It's strange to think that so much could have changed since Sirius and I arrived."

Delia wrapped Vali in a hug and the girl only stiffened for a few moment before accepting the warm embrace. Closing her eyes, she wondered not for the first time if her mother would have acted like Delia if they'd lived in the pokemon world rather than the wizarding world. Delia pulled away after a few moments and looked at Vali seriously, "Vali, you're always welcome in this home. It's as much yours as it is Ash's and mine. No matter what."

With stinging eyes, Vali replied, "I-I know."

"Now, I've got to get Ash in bed. Do you want me to come help you pack?" Delia asked and after a moment of hesitation, Vali agreed, "Good. I want to take a look at your list to see if I can add anything. While I wasn't much of a trainer, I do know some of the things you'll need,"

* * *

The day of her tenth birthday arrived and Vali woke up to Ash bouncing on her bed. Groaning softly, Vali stopped Ash's bouncing with a minor spell, "What time is it?"

"Seven!" Ash answered making Vali groan again.

Vali pulled Ash to her after releasing the spell and yawned out, "I don't need to be up for another hour. Go to sleep."

Ash squirmed against her, but eventually decided to go back to sleep. Vali managed to sleep for another hour and a half before a certain dark/fire type decided to pay her a visit. After getting the hell-hound off of her and sending Ash out, Vali got ready for the day. Walking downstairs, Vali headed to the kitchen and found Delia cooking at the stove while Sirius read the paper. Hugging her godfather, Vali yawned out a good morning. He hugged her back, "Good morning and happy birthday, Pup. You have to be at Oak's lab at ten right?"

"Mhmm," Vali yawned softly, "I think I'll go a bit early though. I want to spend some time with Growlithe,"

Sirius chuckled as Vali went to the fridge and pulled out some pinap juice, "He'll be put out when you finally leave."

"I wonder where Growlithe's trainer is," Vali said as she sat down at the table and poured herself a glass of juice.

"Growlithe doesn't have a trainer and Professor Oak hasn't managed to find the perfect person to adopt him out to," Delia informed her earning a frown from Vali, "Growlithe's one of Arcanine's pups, so Professor Oak wants to make sure he'll have the perfect home,"

"Well, I hope he finds one," Vali kind of wanted to have Growlithe with her.

He was her friend and the first pokemon she'd physically met not to mention her most constant companion. She would miss him greatly when she left. Ash walked into the room as Delia began putting breakfast on the table, "Vali, what pokemon are you getting?"

"I want to get a Charmander," Vali told him.

"Why not Squirtle?" Ash asked with a frown, "He's strong,"

"While Squirtle maybe strong, Charmander is too and he can boil water while I'm on the road," Vali explained earning a confused look, "Water that isn't boiled can really hurt humans, so you need to boil water to make sure it's safe to drink. Some natural sources of water are okay, but boiling water is a safe option,"

"Oh," Ash only looked confused.

Instead of pressing that part of the subject, Vali told him, "I also want to get a Charmander because of it's final evolution, Charizard. He can fly at that stage."

"Oh, right!" Ash looked excited, "When your Charmander evolves into a Charizard, can I ride him?"

"Only if your mom says you can and he can handle it," Vali replied earning a pout, "But I have to get a Charmander first,"

* * *

Vali headed to the lab with Ash while Sirius and Delia stayed at the house. Reaching the lab, Vali opened the door and one of the lab assistants smiled at her, "Hi, Vali. Here to get your pokemon?"

"Yup," Vali said with a nod, "Ash wanted to be the first to meet my starter,"

"You're a bit early, but I think the Professor won't mind," The assistant said, "Follow me,"

Vali and Ash followed the assistant towards the back of the lab where rows of pokeballs were stored. Professor Oak looked up from a pokeball that he was fiddling with and smiled, "Hello, you two. You're a bit early, Vali."

"I figured it would be easier and give me more time to get to know my starter," Vali said before looking at Ash, "Not to mention, a certain someone decided to wake me up at seven this morning,"

Professor Oak chuckled with a smile, "Well, I might as well begin. First, I want to give you a pokedex. Once you have eight badges, I'll give you the national dex upgrade. What color do you want?"

Vali thought about it before saying, "Dark red, please."

Professor Oak took out a dark red pokedex and hooked it up to a waiting computer before typing a few things. Once a beep sounded, Professor Oak unhooked the pokedex and handed it to Vali alongside six basic pokeballs, "Here you are, it will function as your trainer id. If you lose it or it gets severely damage, you'll need to come back here to replace it. Make sure your memorize your trainer id just in case."

Vali took the pokedex, "It has my full name in it?"

"Yes though I've put in a little notice about your preferred nickname," Professor Oak informed her while walking over to a round machine sitting in the middle of the room, "It will also automatically update your age, the pokemon you catch, and the number of official battles you participate in," He tapped a button and a trio of pokeballs rose up, "Here are the starters I have for you. The fire-type, Charmander," Professor Oak pointed to a pokeball with a flame sticker on it, "The grass-type, Bulbasaur," Professor Oak pointed to a pokeball with a leaf sticker, "And lastly, the water-type, Squirtle," Professor Oak pointed to the last ball, "Which starter do you want?"

"Charmander, please," Vali said earning a smile.

Professor Oak picked up the pokeball and handed it to Vali. Tossing it into the air, Vali called out, "Come on out, Charmander."

A burst of bluish white light left the pokeball as it split open and landed on the ground. As the light began to fade, the pokeball fell back down and Vali caught it before looking at the pokemon that had emerged from the ball. The pokemon was a bipedal reptilian Pokémon with a primarily orange body. Its underside from the chest down and soles are cream-colored. It has two small fangs visible in its upper jaw and two smaller fangs in its lower jaw. Bright blue eyes stared at her from a cute face. Its arms and legs are short with four fingers and three clawed toes. A fire burns at the tip of it's slender tail and twitched as the Charmander stared up at her. Getting onto her knees, Vali held out a hand to the fire-type, "Hi, Charmander. My name is Vali. I know that you don't know me yet, but I'm your trainer. I'm going to go on a journey soon and I'd love to have you by my side. Would you like to come with me? I don't know what I can offer you other than friendship and a willingness to help you become stronger."

Charmander stared at her with a measured gaze before smiling wildly and taking her hand in it's claws while giving a noise of agreement. Professor Oak smiled at the interaction, "Well, I'm glad that worked out. Now, why don't you scan Charmander here while I go take care of something?"

Professor Oak left them and Vali took out her knew dex. She looked at Charmander with a smile, "I'm going to scan you with this, Little One. It'll tell me about you."

 _Charmander, the lizard pokemon._ _From the time it is born, a flame burns at the tip of its tail. Its life would end if the flame were to go out._ _The flame that burns at the tip of its tail is an indication of its emotions. The flame wavers when Charmander is enjoying itself. If the Pokémon becomes enraged, the flame burns fiercely._

 _This Charmander is Male and has the ability Blaze. This Charmander knows Growl, Scratch, Ember, and Dragon Pulse._

Vali's eyes widen at the last move, "Dragon Pulse?"

"Ah, yes," Professor Oak appeared, "This Charmander's egg move is Dragon Pulse. The breeder that I got him from has a Charizard that learned that move though I'm not sure where,"

"Is it a big deal?" Ash asked her curiously.

"No, but it's unexpected," Vali looked down at her new pokemon, "You're a powerful little guy, aren't you?" Charmander let out a little trill from the back of his throat looking kind of smug, "Well, I'm glad to have you on my side. By the way, do you want a nickname?" Charmander thought about it before nodding and she thought about it carefully before saying, "How about Helios? He was known as a god of the sun?" Charmander shook his head and Vali began running through the names she associated with fire and dragons before finally saying, "Smaug?" Charmander made a noise of pleasure at the name and breathed out a few embers, "Smaug it is then,"

"Where'd that name come from?" Ash asked with a frown.

"I got it from a book back home," Vali explained as she scratched under the now named Smuag's chin earning a pleased purr-like sound that made her smile, "Smaug is the name of a greedy gold loving dragon in the book that acted as one of the villains. There's more, but I can't really remember it since I read that book a long time ago,"

"Well it sounds like a good name for Charmander," Professor Oak said earning a nod from Vali, "Now, I have something for you before you leave today,"

"Oh?" Vali stood up and looked at the Professor curiously, "By the way, where's Growlithe? He's usually here by now,"

"This involves Growlithe," Vali frowned feeling a bit worried for her friend, "As you no doubt know by now, Growlithe doesn't have a trainer,"

Vali nodded, "Yeah, Delia told me that he was one of your Arcanine's pups and you wanted to make sure he went to a good home."

"Indeed," Professor Oak help up a pokeball making Vali's eyes widen, "I do not normally do this especially since you're a new trainer, but I figure that you can handle it. You've become a dear friend to Growlithe and treat him well. You're a wonderful girl and I know that you'll become a great trainer which is something Growlithe needs. Valkyrie Potter, I am entrusting Growlithe to you. Raise him well,"

"Professor," Vali murmured as she held out her hand and felt the pokeball settle in it, "Are you sure?"

Professor Oak nodded with a warm smile, "I am and so is Arcanine. Not to mention, Growlithe would be very put out if you left him behind and no one likes a sad puppy pokemon."

"Thank you," Vali murmured before looked down at Smaug, "Smaug, it looks like we'll have another teammate to start our journey. He's an old friend of mine. Do you want to meet him," Smaug considered it before nodding, "Come on out, Growlithe," Vali released her friend and he shook his head before catching sight of her, "Hey, Growlithe," He yipped and darted over to her, "Nice to see you too, Buddy," Vali bent down to scratch behind his ears before saying, "Growlithe, do you know why I'm the one that called you out?" Growlithe blinked before shaking his head, "Professor Oak decided that I could be your trainer. Do you like that idea?" Growlithe barked and licked her face, "Quit it, Growlithe," He stopped but wagged his tail, "Now, you aren't the only member of my team. This," She pointed to Smaug who was eyeing the puppy pokemon warily, "Is Smaug. My Charmander and starter,"

Growlithe approached Smaug and sniffed at him as the reptilian pokemon did the same. They conversed with some yips, barks, hisses, growls, and trills. Ash looked confused by the interaction, "What are they doing?"

"They're getting to know one another," Professor Oak explained as he went over to his computer and did something, "I've added Growlithe to your trainer id,"

"So all pokemon can understand one another like that?" Ash asked earning a shrug from Vali.

"Yes, though Electric types can converse using their electricity," Professor Oak answered before looking at the conversing duo, "I need to get back to what I was doing. Why don't you take those two home?"

"Right," Vali smiled lightly as she observed her pokemon, "Professor, when is the guy supposed to arrive?"

"He should be arriving late tonight and will be staying in one of my guest rooms," Professor Oak replied earning a nod from Vali, "Come by the lab at noon to meet him,"

"Of course," Vali turned to her two pokemon, "Smaug, Growlithe," The two paused and looked at her, "The Professor wants us to leave, so we should get going. Do you two want to travel outside your pokeballs for now," The two thought about it before nodding, "Then follow Ash and I,"

They left the lab and started heading back to the Ketchum/Potter/Black residence. Ash looked at her curiously, "So what are you going to do until tomorrow?"

"Get to know my pokemon, see what they can do, and make sure I have everything ready," Vali explained as they reached the front yard before pausing, "Smaug, this is my adoptive little brother, Ash,"

Smaug looked at him and Ash looked at the fire-type in return. Smaug finally smiled and nodded to Ash earning a grin from the four year old. They headed inside with Ash calling out, "Mom, Sirius! We're home!"

* * *

"Smaug? Really?" Sirius asked as he looked at the Charmander who was currently enjoying the attention Delia was giving him.

"He chose it and I didn't really have many options left," Vali replied with a shrug.

Sirius looked at Growlithe who was laying across Vali's lap, "What about Growlithe?"

Growlithe perked up and Vali asked him, "Do you want a nickname, Growlithe?"

The puppy pokemon nodded and Vali began offering names to the puppy. Sirius finally suggested, "How about Balto?"

Growlithe barked and wagged his tail. Smiling, Vali said, "Balto it is. I should scan him too."

Vali took out her dex and scanned the now named Balto.

 _Growlithe, the puppy pokemon._ _Very friendly and faithful to people. It will try to repel enemies by barking and biting. Growlithe has a superb sense of smell. Once it smells anything, this Pokémon won't forget the scent, no matter what. It uses its advanced olfactory sense to determine the emotions of other living things._

 _This Growlithe is Male and has the ability Flash Fire. This Growlithe knows Bite, Roar, Ember, Leer, Odor Sleuth, Helping hand, and Morning Sun._

"Morning Sun?" Ash asked looking confused.

"It means that Balto can heal himself though the amount depends on the weather," Vali explained with a light smile, "Not a bad move set and he's probably perfected most of them considering how old he is,"

"So, what do you want to do?" Sirius asked her curiously.

"I want to get a feel for their moves and their general condition. From there, I can work on setting up training schedules," Vali said as she scratched behind Balto's ears, "I know that I'm going to be training their speed. Charizard are fairly slow on the ground unless they use their wings to propel themselves, so training Smaug to get as fast as possible in his lower forms is important though both Charmander and Chameleon are fairly quick already. Growlithe and Arcanine are speed demons even without Extreme speed. Power is a definite, but that comes with time and training not to mention evolution when they're ready. Defense is a definite..."

Vali trailed off as she opened up the notes section in her pokedex and began typing down her plans much to the amusement of Sirius and Delia.

* * *

Balto and Smaug walked beside Vali as she headed towards Professor Oak's lab. The two fire-types hadn't returned to their pokeballs since she'd released them yesterday. Balto darted around her legs though he made sure not to get close enough to trip her. Smaug watched his teammate with amusement alongside Vali. Vali smiled lightly though it dropped as they reached the hill that Professor Oak's lab sat on. Walking up, she felt her stomach churn a little and her palms start to sweat as she got closer to the lab. Balto and Smaug looked at her in concern when they reached the door and she didn't open it. Balto whined and Smaug patted her leg earning a strained smile, "Sorry guys, I'm just a bit nervous is all. Let's head inside."

Opening the door, Vali let her pokemon enter first before following them. She found one of the assistants, "John, right?"

"Ah, Vali," The aid smiled at her, "Professor Oak's in the corral with the new comer. He told me to tell you to go there when you arrived,"

"Thank you," Vali told him before looking at her pokemon, "To the corral, I suppose,"

"No problem," John said before he walked off.

They walked through the lab towards the door that led to the corral and exited onto the deck that was set up at the back door. Walking onto the deck, Vali heard the calls of pokemon and smiled lightly. She loved to corral as it always had so many diffrent types of pokemon running around. Balto sniffed around before yipping and darting forward. Vali quickly returned Smaug before following after Balto knowing that the Growlithe had gotten the Professor's scent. Vali followed after Balto for five minutes before he finally slowed down near the top of a hill. Vali panted softly as she stopped beside him, "Next time, how about you slow down a bit? I'm not used to running after you at full speed."

Balto yipped and nodded making her smile. She scratched behind his ears earning a pleased groan before she stopped and they continued heading up the hill. Professor Oak turned and smiled as he spotted them, "Ah, Vali! You're just in time. I hope you didn't have a hard time finding us."

"Thanks to Balto here, it wasn't that hard," Vali said while patting Balto's head making the Growlithe bark and wag his tail clearly pleased at the praise.

"Balto, that's a nice name for Growlithe," Professor Oak admitted as they reached him, "Now, Steven should be back in a few moments. He wanted to let Skarmory stretch his wings,"

"Is he like you thought he'd be?" Vali asked wanting to know a bit more about her supposed traveling partner.

While she would meet him before making her final decision, Vali wanted to know more about him before then. Professor Oak understood what she was asking, "Yes. Steven Stone is exactly what I'd thought he be. I'm sure that if you travel with him, he can give you tips on raising your pokemon though he is trying to become a Steel type master."

Vali's eyes widened at the last part. A steel type master? While not as hard to raise as Dragon types, it still took a lot of patience since Steel types were slow to grow. It took a special person to be able to raise them to their fullest potential which made Steel type masters only a little more common than Dragon type masters. Vali was a bit more eager to meet him and felt some of her nervousness fade. The sound of metal feathers and a heavy wing beat filled the air as a piercing cry sounded. Balto growled beside her as she covered her eyes with an arm as the wind caused by the landing pokemon kicked up a lot of dust. When it settled, she put down her arm and stared at the Skarmory standing not even ten feet from her.

Metallic silver coated most of large body. Crimson red covered the sheet metal-like feathers underneath the metallic silver wing covers. Dark grey metals covered a majority of its neck save for a few inches below its head. A similar grey metal covered most of its feet save for its sharp claws. Its sharp looking tail was a deeper grey than the other parts of it's body, but still gleamed in the sunlight. Vali's eyes met the obsidian colored eyes in the sea of yellow and felt like she was being judged. A cultured voice spoke, "Sorry if we took a bit longer than I said, Professor. Skarmory found some nice updrafts and I thought it would be best to let him enjoy it while he could."

Vali's eyes snapped towards the teen that got off of Skarmory's back. Aristocratic features were the first thing she noticed outside of his icy blue hair and bright sky blue eyes. He wore a a white undershirt with a black overcoat that has purple zig-zag streaks going down and a red tie. On the ends of his sleeves, he has silver cuffs. He also wears black pants with dark-purple dress shoes. Professor Oak spoke and she focused on the Professor, "It's fine, Steven. You're right on time."

"Oh?" He caught sight of Vali and Balto, "Who are these two?"

"Steven, this is Valkyrie Potter and one of her pokemon, Balto," Professor Oak introduced before gesturing to Steven, "Vali, this is Steven Stone and one of his pokemon, Skarmory,"

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Vali," Steven held out his hand and Vali took it only to flush as Steven lifted it to his lips before pressing a kiss to the knuckles, "Professor Oak's been telling me about you. I would be happy to travel with you for awhile,"

"It's nice to meet you as well, Mr. Stone," Vali said with a smile as Steven let go of her hand, "Please call me Vali,"

"Then please call me Steven. Mr. Stone reminds me of my father," Steven replied earning a laugh from Vali, "So shall we get to know one another? I understand that you want to get a proper gauge of me before going out into the wilderness with me. I will be doing the same as well,"

"Let's head inside then," Professor Oak advised, "It will give me time to get Steven's starter ready and make sure his pokemon are ready to travel,"

The two agreed and they all headed inside.

* * *

Balto curled up beside Vali on the couch while Smaug sniffed at Steven. Steven looked amused by the fire-types antics, "So Vali, what's your ultimate goal?"

"I don't really have one yet," Vali admitted as she ran her fingers through Balto's fur, "For now, I just want to travel, earn gym badges, and get settled as a trainer before I decide to really do anything. I'm mostly interested in seeing the world, seeing how far I can go, meeting new pokemon, and maybe discovering some mysteries,"

"So you're going to try and find answers about why you ended up in this world?" Steven asked making Vali stare at him in surprise and he smiled warmly, "Professor Oak mentioned it and I've read some of the League reports. Not many, but enough to know some things,"

Vali felt a bit of anger, but mostly she was relieved. The idea of not having to keep her limited knowledge of this world a secret was nice. While she'd learned a lot about this world, she didn't know everything and that would get her into trouble. Deciding that being angry at Professor Oak wouldn't do anything, she said, "Yeah."

Steven didn't look bothered by her rather short reply and said, "I came to Kanto not only because it's a new region and learning to adapt is key to growing stronger, but due to the stones that can be found here. Like fire stones which can be used to evolve your Growlithe safely."

"So you like gem stones and stuff?" Vali asked him earning a nod.

"It's a bit more than that, but the simple answer would be yes," Steven leaned back against the couch he was sitting on as Smaug decided that he wasn't worth paying attention to and returned to Vali's side, "I also want to become strong enough to become the Champion of Hoenn. I expect that if I work hard, I can manage it by the time I turn sixteen. That gives me two years and a few months as my fourteenth birthday is in September,"

Vali let that information sink into her head, "Professor Oak also mentioned that you're trying to become a steel type master."

Steven smiled lightly and nodded, "That I am, I will say that traveling with fire types will be a new experience, but it should be worth it. I won't assume, but are you trying to become a fire type master?"

Vali refrained from snapping at the elder trainer, "No, I just love them. I want to train other pokemon too."

"You can still do that while becoming a master," Steven told her, "After all, I'm getting a starter that isn't a steel type and have a few pokemon that aren't of my favorite type,"

"True," Vali admitted, "I still don't know if I want to become a master. I might eventually, but for now, I want to bring out the best in every pokemon I end up with,"

"A good idea," Steven agreed before asking, "So, do you want to travel with me?"

Vali thought about it carefully before looking at her two pokemon, "What do you guys think? Should we travel with Steven?"

* * *

Balto got up and jumped off the couch before walking over to Steven. He eyed the human that the aged master his sire obeyed had suggested that his human travel with. Despite smelling of damp earth and dark caves, the human didn't smell bad nor did he give off any signs of bad intent. Locking eyes with the male, Balto looked for any sign that the male would be bad for his trainer only to find nothing. He would watch him, but for now, he'd give his approval of Steven. If he tried anything or made his human regress into that scared pup that had been brought here, he would show the human why it was a bad idea to anger a Growlithe.

With a yip, Balto licked the male before going back to his human. He nuzzled her earning a smile as his new pack brother, a fire lizard of all things, snorted and eyed the human. Smaug, an odd name though no more odd than his own new name, eyed the human before shrugging. It would see that he didn't care who the male was so long as their human wasn't harmed. Balto would need to teach the fire lizard what it meant to be in a pack since he didn't think Smaug's kind knew about pack.

* * *

Steven chuckled at the reaction, "It looks like they think we should."

"Then I don't see why not," Vali agreed earning a slight grin, "We'll have to stop by my house so I can grab my bag and say goodbye to my family,"

"Of course," Steven agreed.

Professor Oak chose to appear then and said, "Steven, your pokemon are ready and I have the starters lined up."

They followed Professor Oak into the room that Vali had gotten both her pokemon in. Vali returned Balto and Smaug feeling that it would be best if Steven met his newest pokemon without any others around. Professor Oak announced the choices and Steven chose Squirtle. The water type blinked slightly as it appeared and Steven bent down to it's level, "Hello, Squirtle. My name is Steven Stone and I've just become your trainer. I can't really say much at the moment since we've just met, but I want to tell you that I'm going to make you into the best that you can be."

Steven continued to speak to the water type for a little bit before returning Squirtle.

* * *

Vali led the way to her house while explaining about it, "Delia Ketchum took me in when Sirius took the offer to become a pokemon ranger for the Kanto sect. Sirius Black, as you've probably read, is my Godfather and adoptive father figure. He's more bark than bite. Lastly, we have Ash Ketchum, my adoptive little brother. He's Delia's son and four years old. He's a good kid and likes pokemon though he isn't too sure about what he wants to do just yet."

"I look forward to meeting them," Steven said with a smile as he walked beside her, "Though I suppose Mr. Black won't be happily about you traveling with me,"

"Like I said, he's more bark than bite especially is Delia is around," Vali giggled as she remembered Delia elbowing Sirius more than a few times when he'd complained about her perspective traveling partner, "Just act how you usually do and answer the questions he asks truthfully, you'll be just fine,"

"Of course," Steven nodded lightly.

Soon enough, they reached the house and Vali opened the door while calling out, "I'm home and going on my journey!"

"Vali!" Ash raced towards her, "Don't leave!"

"Ash," Vali bent down and caught him, "We made a promise remember,"

Ash pouted, "Yeah. Wait," He caught sight of Steven, "You're Steven Stone! You almost beat that guy in the finals."

"That I did," Steven looked a bit amused, "And you must Ash. Are you thinking of becoming a trainer?"

"Yup! I want to become a master though I don't know what kind of type I want to master," Ash said earning a smile from Steven.

"Well, you have a lot of time before you really need to decide," Steven said as Delia exited the kitchen.

"Welcome back Vali and who's this?" Delia asked while walking over to hug Vali.

Vali returned the hug before gesturing to Steven, "This is Steven Stone. We're going to be traveling partners."

Delia beamed at her, "I'm glad you decided to go. Why don't you head upstairs and grab your pack?"

"Right," Vali turned to Steven, "I'll be right back and we can head out once I say goodbye,"

"Of course," Steven looked at Delia, "It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Ketchum,"

Vali rushed upstairs towards her room to grab her bag only to pause in front of the hallway mirror. She was a lot more healthy than she had been at ten last time and definitely stronger. Her eyes settled on the grey and white spots threaded through her hair, they had appeared after Sirius and her had arrived in this world. They figured it was a response to the immense strain that had been heaped upon her magic and body. Regardless, Vali was happy as it help distance her from the girl that had been brought to this world. Running a hand through her hair, she pulled up her bangs and looked at the nearly non-existent scar that had once been the main way people recognized her. She smiled briefly as she decided that it was better this way. She wasn't the girl that had been transported to this world a year and some months ago. While the scars of her past would always be with her, she was healing and far stronger than she had been before. Taking a deep breath, she turned towards and began walking towards the stairs. It was time to start the next chapter in her life.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997: Here is chapter two! I'm glad you guys seem to be liking this story.**

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 **A/N: Updates will happen once a month unless I have a lot of inspiration.**

* * *

Chapter Two

* * *

After rescuing Steven from Sirius, Vali said her goodbyes with Balto and Smaug before leaving. Steven spoke as they left the safety of Pallet town and entered route 1, "Do you know what kind of pokemon you want to catch first? The first gym is a rock type one."

"There aren't many pokemon that are strong against rock types," Vali told him, "My best bet is to try and find one of the rare Pikachu that live around here. If I can, I can teach it Iron tail just like I'm going to teach Smaug to use Metal claw. Once we get to Viridian City, I can go by the pond that's there and see if I can't catch a Poliwag. If I can catch both a Pikachu and Poliwag, I'll have pokemon that will help for the Cerulean gym,"

"Not a bad idea," Steven admitted as they walked, "It'll take us around three days to reach Viridian if we walk as long as possible, but we don't really need to do that,"

Vali nodded, "I want to catch a Pidgey as well. They're really quick and when Smaug evolves into his final evolution, he'll benefit from a teacher that knows how to fly."

Steven chuckled lightly, "You're really prepared, aren't you?"

Vali flushed lightly and rubbed the back of her neck, "I've learned that actually having a plan is better than just rushing in and planning on the fly. Though I'm probably better at planning things on the fly."

"It's a good plan regardless," Steven assured her, "I was thinking that we'd take it a bit easy on the first day both so you can catch any pokemon you find interesting and so we can get a bit of training done. At the very least, our teams should meet one another and I still need to introduce my team to Squirtle,"

"I'm fine that. It'll probably help me get used to traveling too," Vali said earning a nod, "So why Squirtle?"

"He has the best defense out of the three Kanto starters," Steven replied, "I'm a defensive fighter as it makes it easier to gauge my opponents though I can be offensive if I so desire,"

Vali nodded lightly seeing the benefits in that fighting style though it would only work if the pokemon were able to endure hits or avoid them. It fit steel type pokemon fairly well.

* * *

Vali ended up getting a chance to capture a Pidgey not long before they were going to stop for lunch. It was poking around the ground, but stopped when it noticed them. Rather than fly away, it chirped and Steven said, "Here's your chance."

"Right," Vali took out Smaug's pokeball and released him, "Smaug, we're going to be battling that Pidgey," The Charmander eyed the Pidgey before growling earning a shriek from the Pidgey, "Let's start off with Growl and Ember,"

Smaug growled loudly causing Pidgey to flinch a bit before spitting out a fire ball that Pidgey was quick to dodge. It took flight before lashing out with a tackle attack, "Smaug, dodge it and try to hit it with Ember as it goes by!"

Smaug barely managed to dodge Pidgey, but failed to hit the bird pokemon with his ember. Pidgey came back around with another tackle attack and Smaug was quick to dodge before finally managing to hit it with ember. Pidgey let out a shriek of pain as Vali quickly took a pokeball out of her backpack, but she didn't try to catch it yet. Pidgey flew towards with another tackle, but this time Smaug didn't manage to dodge it. He did hit Pidgey with another ember though which further weakened the flying type. Vali called out, "Next time it comes around, try to grab it when it tackles you and hit it with Ember again."

Smaug did as she asked and spat out an ember. Pidgey's shriek of pain died as it passed out and Vali sent a pokeball at it. The ball shook for a few moments before chiming. She walked over to the ball and bent down to pick it up. She smiled softly before turning to Smaug and pulling her Charmander into a hug, "Good job, Smaug. You got us a new teammate."

Smaug grinned at her looking smug despite how tired he seemed. Vali turned to Steven as she let go of Smaug and he said, "You two did a good job for a first time battle even if it was against a Pidgey. Nicely done, Smaug."

Smaug wagged his tail a bit showing how much the words pleased him.

* * *

After stopping for lunch, Vali released her new Pidgey and took care of its wounds along with Smaug's. The Pidgey was too exhausted to do more than allow Vali to fix it up. When she finished fixing Pidgey's injuries, Vali put away the potion she'd used and poured some pokemon food out for Pidgey, "Here, you could use some food after that battle," Pidgey eyed the food for a moments before hopping forward and starting to eat slowly, "My name is Vali, the Charmander that beat you is Smaug, and the Growlithe is Balto. I'm you're new trainer and they're your new teammates," The Pidgey eyed the two though it's eyes narrowed at Smaug showing that it remembered what pokemon had beaten it, "I'm not saying that you need to get along with them right away, but it would be nice if you could avoid causing trouble outside of practice battles," Pidgey seemed to think about it before nodding, "Good. Now," Vali took out her pokedex earning a curious look from the Pidgey, "This is a pokedex and I'm going to use it to scan you. It'll tell me a bit more about you."

Pidgey inclined it's head before focusing on eating the food in front of it. Vali scanned the Pidgey while it ate.

 _Pidgey, the ti_ _ny bird Pokémon. Pidgey has an extremely sharp sense of direction. It is capable of unerringly returning home to its nest, however far it may be removed from its familiar surroundings. It is docile and prefers to avoid conflict. If disturbed, however, it can ferociously strike back._

 _This Pidgey is female and has the ability Keen eye. This Pidgey knows the moves Tackle and Sand Attack._

"Not exactly a strong move set, but we're still close to Pallet," Vali said not feeling very surprised, "But that can be taken care of by training hard and getting experience," Vali looked at Pidgey, "Would you like a nickname?"

Pidgey thought about it before shaking her head earning a shrug from Vali. Not all of her pokemon would want nicknames and she was fine with that. Pidgey might want one later on which would probably be better as it would allow Vali to make a list of names that suited the bird. Steven smiled lightly before saying, "You should probably feed those two. From what I remember, young pokemon tend to eat more often than their older counter parts unless they're certain species."

"Right," Vali took the bag of generic pokemon food she'd gotten Pidgey's food from and poured some into a bowl for Balto before pouring a bit more than that it's Smaug's bowl since he'd battled today.

Steven released Squirtle before supplying the water type with food and water before taking out his lunch. Delia had packed a lunch for Vali which she took out of her bag. Steven spoke as they settled down to eat, "You did a fairly good job at battling Pidgey. Your strategy once Pidgey began to attack fairly good though I would advise trying a diffrent method as Smaug doesn't have the speed he would need against a fast pokemon like Pidgey."

Vali nodded lightly, "It makes the fact I'm planning on training Smaug to be faster alongside Balto even more important though I'm still going to focus on upping their power. Speed isn't worth it if they don't have any power behind them not to mention defense is an issue."

"What moves do they have?" Steven asked with a contemplative look.

Vali thought back to the moves Smaug and Balto had, "Smaug knows Growl, Scratch, Ember, and Dragon Pulse. I'm not too sure how strong Dragon Pulse is just yet. I doubt it's very strong if only because Smaug is still young and non-dragon types tend to have trouble using dragon type moves," Steven nodded while looking surprised at Smaug's egg move, "Balto knows Bite, Roar, Ember, Leer, Odor Sleuth, Helping hand, and Morning Sun."

"Morning Sun? Most would not expect a Growlithe to know it," Steven commented earning a smile from Vali, "It's a good move too if a bit inaccurate due to how much it relies on the weather. You should try to invest in the Sunny Day TM when you have the chance as it would give Balto more control over Morning Sun not to mention boost your fire types powers. It would also help if you end up with any grass types as well,"

Vali took out her dex and made a note of Steven's suggestion in the notes section, "He'll need all the help he can get until I can find him a fire stone. I won't evolve him until he's reached the limit of what he can do as a Growlithe. Once he does, I'll evolve him."

"Most trainers with Growlithe or any other pokemon that use evolutionary stones evolve their pokemon as soon as possible, they want their pokemon to be stronger sooner rather than later," Steven looked a bit annoyed by that and Vali couldn't blame him, "They only cripple their pokemon later on,"

Vali nodded as she continued to eat, "So how come you aren't letting out your other pokemon?"

"I will later when we stop for the night," Steven told her, "To be honest, they're probably still tired from the long trip here. We did a lot of battling on the boat over here,"

* * *

Vali didn't get a chance to catch a Pikachu on the first day of travel, but she didn't mind too much. She needed to get to know Pidgey better not to mention Balto and Smaug were fairly tired from all the walking they did together. Steven had suggested that both of them walk, or run in Balto's case, to increase their endurance. Pidgey flew a little bit, but stuck close to them. She didn't blame her since the Spearow were rather agitated lately. More than likely, some of them were on the verge of evolving which always led to problems. Depending on what happened, Professor Oak was either going to get involved or the league would send some trainers to deal with the Fearow.

When they finally stopped for the night and got their camp ready, Steven told her, "I'm going to release my pokemon. Try not to get too close until I introduce you."

Vali nodded having been warned multiple times since she got here that even if a pokemon is trained, it will not react well to strangers if they're too close to it upon it's release, "Of course."

"Come on out, my friends!" Steven call out as he released the six pokemon from the pokeballs hooked onto his waist.

The familiar forms of Skarmory and Squirtle appeared before being followed by four relatively new pokemon to her. She had seen them when she watched the Hoenn League conference, but it was the first time she was seeing them in person since Professor Oak didn't have any steel type pokemon in the corral. The first one was familiar if only due to the fact she'd toyed with the idea of catching one, a Metagross. The only difference between it and the ones she'd seen before was its lighter shade of turquoise. A regular Metagross had dark turquoise metal covering its body whereas this one had light turquoise telling her it was shiny.

The second was also fairly familiar most due to her high interest in its first evolutionary form: Aggron. The dragon like steel type was over 6 foot 11 and dented the ground a little when it appeared from its pokeball. Iron plates covered its entire body and was mostly a dark blackish-grey, the only places that weren't a dark blackish-grey were its sharp claws, a ring around its elbows and knees, and its head. Sharp horns were set just above its sky blue eyes.

The third and fourth weren't familiar to her. The first was a large levitating pokemon with several large pink eyes that created a ring around its head which were surrounded by wave wavy marks. Its body was dark brown body with two short legs. It has a protrusion on top of its head. Its eyes have a pattern of alternating between being open and closed. It also has cannon like arms separate from its body which were kept close to it.

The second was even odder than the first. It looked like a plant with eight dark-tipped, pink tentacles protruding from an opening on top of its head. Inside the pitch black opening are two glowing, yellow eyes. The remainder of its head is purple with yellow eye spots resembling targets. The head is connected to the body by means of a yellow stem. The body itself is purple and semi-spherical. Four stubby roots acted as its legs.

Steven spoke to the five pokemon older pokemon as Squirtle trotted over to where Vali was getting pokemon food out for her pokemon. She smiled and rubbed along the base of his neck earning a low gurgling sound from the water-type. Squirtle nuzzled into her touch and whined when she removed her hands. She waved him off and sent him back over to Steven since he needed to meet his new teammates. She took out some of the Oran berries she had stocked up on from Delia's garden and the small Pokemart in Pallet before squeezing the berries over the three bowls of food she prepared before mashing the remains of the berries into the food ensuring that it was thoroughly mixed in before setting the bowls in front of her pokemon. She jumped slightly when Steven commented, "I wasn't expecting you to do that."

"I figured that they'll all benefit from the boost the Oran berries will give them and it'll have an easier time being absorbed into their systems," Vali explained as she reached out to scratch behind Balto's ears, "I learned at Professor Oak's lab that while pokemon will eat the generic pokemon food, they will respond better to it if it has some berry juice soaked into it. As far as I'm aware, pokemon generally love Oran berries, so mixing some of them in after a long day of walking will make it easier on my pokemon especially since they're going to need the small boost later on,"

"You might have been better off just giving them each a berry and waiting until after they got some training in to feed them," Steven said earning a light flush from Vali, "Though I suppose they might need it after walking for most of the day,"

Smaug and Balto were starting to look a bit less tired the more they ate. Vali looked at Steven's team, "So who's who?"

"There's Metagross," Steven gestured to the shiny pokemon, "They're my first pokemon and my strongest," He gestured to the Aggron, "That's Aggron, I caught him when he was still a Aron. He's my second pokemon. Next is Skarmory, she's my fifth. Next is Claydol," He pointed to the first pokemon that she hadn't recognized, "I woke them up as a Baltoy and managed to catch them," He pointed to the last pokemon she hadn't recognized, "This is Lileep, he's a fossil pokemon from Hoenn,"

"A fossil pokemon?" Vali stared at the pokemon in shock, "I didn't know they'd advanced the research enough to bring them back,"

"Thanks to my father being CEO of the Devon Corporation, he managed to get me one with another one on the way if I raise Lileep well enough," Steven smiled as he patted Lileep lightly earning an odd gurgling-trill from the pokemon, "He's a grass/rock type,"

"And Claydol is some type of psychic type, right?" Vali asked earning a surprised nod, "I figured since...they?" Steven nodded lightly, "Has a presence to it that's similar to the Psychic types that Professor Oak sometimes has in the corral,"

"Ah. Claydol is also a ground type," Steven told her as the pokemon approached, "Everyone this is Valkyrie Potter though she prefers Vali,"

Each gave their own greetings and Vali smiled at them, "Hi everyone. My pokemon are the Charmander, the Growlithe, and the Pidgey. The Charmander's nickname is Smaug and the Growlithe's is Balto. I hope we can all get along while traveling together."

The elder pokemon eyed hers before either snorting and showing no reaction at all. The only one who really reacted was Lileep. The fossil pokemon waddled over before reaching out to touch her pokemon with his vines. Smaug growled and let out a burst of fire causing the grass/rock type to recoil from the lizard pokemon. Pidgey looked resigned while Balto wagged his tail with excitement and gleefully allowed the odd pokemon to touch it. Lileep let out that odd gurgling-trill again and Vali made note that it was probably a sound to show it's happiness.

As soon as her pokemon finished eating, Steven and her set their teams up to train. Smaug was set to sprinting along with Lileep to increase their speed. Pidgey was following Skarmory as the steel bird flew in quick circles over head. Balto was running through an obstacle course that Steven had Metagross, Aggron, and Claydol set up. Aggron started doing a similar sprinting exercise as Smaug and Lileep though he was slower than the two. Steven had Metagross and Claydol use their psychic powers to make the obstacles they created rotate to help fine tune their control. Steven and Vali were both observing the exercises while the elder trainer was discussing her teams move sets. Out of all her team, Smaug likely had the most power whereas Balto had the most control due to his age. Smaug was the slowest with Balto being the quickest which didn't surprise her. None of her pokemon had much of a defense which would be remedied as they got more experienced. Pidgey was the weakest of her pokemon both in move set and training due to the fact she was a wild pokemon whereas her other two had been raised by humans.

Steven commented, "You'll have to work hard with Pidgey. While Balto is at a disadvantage because his species has only one evolution, he has the benefit of being an older pokemon and closer to his prime than the other two. Pidgey is quite frankly a weak pokemon, but can become strong especially if you ensure she masters her moves."

"I'll have to work on getting all of them to master their current move set not to mention teach both Smaug and Balto Iron Tail," It was too useful a move to not teach it to them, "Not to mention, I'm going to teach Smaug Metal Claw,"

"We should see where they stand at the moment with their current move pools," Steven advised earning a nod, "After that, you should have Smaug focus on Metal Claw and Balto do the same with Iron tail. Once they both get it, you can have Balto teach Smaug Iron Tail though it shouldn't be too hard. Thankfully, the process to teach them isn't very hard. It just takes time,"

Vali took out her pokedex and brought up the page on Pidgey, "Gust is definitely something Pidgey needs to learn alongside Quick Attack. I'll eventually have to teach her Steel Wing. It's a shame Pidgey doesn't have too many defensive moves."

Steven nodded with a frown, "Pidgey are among the frailest bird pokemon alongside Taillow and Spearow. Thankfully, they're also among the fastest though the males tend to be slower since power is more important to them."

* * *

By the time her pokemon finished the exercises Steven hag given them, they were exhausted, but an Oran berry each gave them the energy to show off their attacks. Steven had guessed right when it came to Smaug having the most power with Balto having far more control. Pidgey was definitely the weakest, but the little bird was determined to catch up to her senior teammates and beat the one that had beaten her. Smaug's Dragon Pulse barely rated as more than a concussive blast of energy that barely even managed to get more than a foot away from him. The Charmander had growled at himself and tried again only to barely get any further. Balto used Helping Hand on Smaug both to show off his ability to use the move and to help his fellow teammate use the move.

It was interesting to see Helping Hand in action prompting her to ask, "Do you think Helping Hand will help them learn new moves?"

Steven thought about it before saying, "It would probably help once they get the basis of the move down. More than likely, it will take Smaug a long time to learn how to properly use Dragon Pulse unless you can find a dragon type to help him. Even then, it probably won't be easy."

It would probably be as hard as teaching a dragon type ice type moves. They could learn them, but it was hard for any dragon type to learn moves that they were naturally weak against. Vali wondered if meditation would help if only so Smaug could get a better feel of the dragon type energy. Vali took out her dex and continued to make notes as she called out, "Smaug, that's enough. Show us your Ember. Balto, you too."

The two immediately began peppering the stones that Steven had his Claydol set up with fire balls. Smaug's caused bigger burn marks, but Balto's were far more concentrated causing the burn marks to be fairly deep. Steven surprised her by asking, "What are you making notes on?"

"Ideas that I have while watching them train or when I talk to you, my thoughts on their current move set, plans for how to use their attacks in battle, and things like that," Vali hesitantly held out her pokedex and Steven looked them over, "I sometimes have trouble remembering my plans or keeping certain ideas in mind. Professor Oak suggested writing them down. I can think outside of the box pretty well, but my memory isn't the greatest sometimes. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to remember certain facts about history when I kept thinking about how to use the terrain the events were taking place on to my advantage,"

It was a problem that had happened back during her school years at Hogwarts. It wasn't that bad until she started playing Quidditch. Thankfully, she'd had Hermione to help her after the troll incident. Steven made a noise of surprise, "These calculations are fairly on point despite the fact they're just numbers on paper."

"I used to play a sport involving flying on a broom and chasing a something that was about the size of a walnut," Vali explained with a shrug as Steven handed her pokedex back to her, "It was gold and could fly really fast. Along with trying to catch it, I had to dodge other players, a pair of iron balls that would really hurt if they hit me, and help my team out while playing. We might not have won all of our matches, but we did fairly well. Also learning how to aim spells and where to aim them to get the best possible reaction also helped," It was a shame Arithmancy was focused on the magical properties of numbers and their use in spell creation otherwise she probably could have done better, "Professor Oak also had me..." Vali trailed off as she noticed him staring at her and flushed with a sheepish smile, "I'm babbling, aren't I?"

"Just a small amount," Steven smiled warmly at her, "It does make me more curious about your world. Though I suppose this is more subconscious thoughts than conscious ones,"

Vali thought about it before saying, "I think fifty-fifty would be a better assessment at least when it comes to wind resistance and things like that. When I'm in the air, it's kind of instinctive rather than conscious thought."

"It's still amazing," Steven told her, "I suppose talking strategy would probably be a good idea for both of us,"

"Sure, but lets save that for when we're either bored walking or resting," Vali told him, "Mental exhaustion isn't a good thing especially since we're not very close to any cities. We could make stupid decisions,"

And she had had her fair share of stupid decisions. Steven agreed though it looked like he wanted to protest.

* * *

It took Vali a little while to fall asleep even with Balto and Smaug curled up on a medium sized fireproof blanket beside her. Pidgey was resting on one of the nearby tree branches. Even if it had only been her first day of being on her pokemon journey, she could honestly say she was glad that she'd decided to go, but it was hard falling asleep. The ground was a bit too rough even with a sleeping bag between her and the hard ground. Something about the rustle of the tress, calls of nocturnal pokemon, and the stars shining above her just stopped her from falling asleep. Eventually she did, but it made her a bit cranky when Steven woke her up a bit after eight in the morning. He didn't seem surprised by her crankiness and only offered her some breakfast that he had made over the fire. She took the offered breakfast and was surprised to taste Oran berries. When she asked about it, he told her, "Until your body gets used to traveling and sleeping on rough ground, it will help if you eat Oran berries in the morning. While they don't work on us as well as they do pokemon, they'll help with the stiffness and aches."

She made a mental note to keep a healthy stock of Oran berries along with whatever berries her team liked. After eating, they cleaned up their camp and set off for their second day of traveling.

* * *

It wasn't until they were within sight of Viridian city that Vali got her chance to catch a Pikachu. The Pikachu was a fast sucker which made her glad that she'd chosen Balto to fight it. It managed to get in a fair few hits before Balto managed to Bite it. When it was weakened enough, Vali tossed the pokeball she'd prepared and managed to catch it. Balto brought the ball over to her looking happy with himself and Vali immediately fed him an Oran berry as a treat. Steven congratulated her, "A nice catch and Balto definitely did good. You're a quick study."

Vali smiled at him and thanked him before saying, "Shall we go and get our pokemon checked out?"

Steven nodded and they quickly made their way to Viridian city. Vali noted that while it was bigger than Pallet town, the city didn't have the pollution that London did. Considering the history of this world, she highly doubted any of the cities would be like that. Still, she could smell the pollution and it was not exactly a pleasant smell not to mention the noise/crowds would take awhile to get used to. They found the Pokemon Center fairly quickly and headed towards the Nurse Joy manning the counter. She smiled at them, "Hello and welcome to the Viridian City Pokemon Center. What can I do for you?"

"We need our pokemon checked out and two rooms for a week," Steven answered her with a smile, "My name is Steven Stone and the young lady with me is Valkyrie 'Vali' Potter,"

Nurse joy took out two trays and they set their pokeballs on them with Vali telling the healer, "The Pikachu is a new capture. I haven't had the time to talk to it since Balto, my Growlithe, won our battle with it."

"Thank you for the warning. I'll be extra careful of it," Nurse Joy beamed at them while handing the tray to her Chansey partner, "It shouldn't take long to get them healed up. I'll call your names up," She handed them two room keys, "Please enjoy your stay with us and come again,"

They thanked her before heading upstairs to their rooms. Vali found that they were right next to each other which was kind of nice. Vali told him, "I'm going to take a shower. Why don't we meet up in the Cafeteria? It's getting close to lunch time."

"Sure," Steven nodded, "I think I'll take a shower as well,"

* * *

Vali and Steven met up downstairs in the cafeteria. Both their teams had been checked out and were given a clean bill of health by the time they had both come downstairs, Vali had been told that Pidgey was malnourished, but it was something most wild pokemon had to deal with especially from Route 1. The Spearow were making it harder for the other pokemon to get the food they all required though it was worse this season than in the past few years. Nurse Joy had told Vali that with this newest documentation, the league would be sending a team out to lower the population. More than likely the Spearow would be brought to one of the areas that had a harsh drop in the population recently for whatever reason, Vali wasn't sure where. Once they'd gotten food, Vali released her team and let them eat their food while Steven only released Squirtle. As they began to eat, Steven explained, "Pokemon centers like this one have limits on how big of a pokemon you can release. Lileep and Squirtle are the only ones small enough for me to even think about releasing. I've only released Squirtle because Lileep would get a lot of attention that neither of us need at the moment."

"True," Vali didn't mind the food too much though she definitely preferred Delia's cooking, "So why a week?"

"You're probably feeling sore from the time we spent camping not to mention the exercising we did," Steven pointed out earning a nod and small shudder from Vali since Steven had put her to running along side her pokemon whenever they were training.

It would help her later on in her journey especially in the more perilous portions that she would be traveling through not to mention she would have a better bond with her pokemon if they saw her working as hard as they did. It brought back memories of the rather hellish training regiments Oliver had forced the Quidditch team into doing. She didn't mind the exercises now, but she definitely didn't like them while they had to travel for the day. At the very least, Steven had joined in so she wasn't suffering alone even if he made it look easy. Drinking some of her water, she swallowed the food she'd been chewing on before asking, "Are you going to try and catch another pokemon while we're here?"

"I will if one catches my eye, but I'll mostly be testing my pokemon's skills and working to get Squirtle and Lileep up to snuff," Steven answered as he rubbed Squirtle's head, "I might end up switching out two of my current team for another pair that need work, but I'll decide that later on. I assume you're going to go Poliwag hunting?"

"Yup," They had passed by the pond and she'd seen some Poliwag wandering around, "It'll be a challenge, but I think my pokemon can handle it," Vali's hand went to pokeball that contained the Pikachu that she hadn't met just yet, "I also need to meet my newest teammate,"

Steven nodded as he swallowed the food in his mouth, "I suppose that means we'll be splitting up. I want to check out the library they have here and read up on the Viridian Forest."

* * *

Once her team had finished eating, they headed to the pond. The Poliwag scattered when they arrived, but Vali ignored them for now as her pokemon settled down around her. She held up the pokeball containing their newest teammate, "Okay guys, you remember how Balto helped me catch a Pikachu, right?" They nodded with Balto looking proud of himself, "I'm going to let them out. Don't attack it and try to be nice. Of course, if it attacks, I want you guys to take it down so no one gets hurt, okay?"

They nodded with Pidgey looking a bit apprehensive. She smiled reassuringly at her first capture before letting out the electric type. Pikachu appeared looking a bit dazed before shaking itself and growling at the pokemon around it. Vali called out, "Pikachu," The Pikachu spun around and it's cheeks spark, "Based on your reaction, you remember me capturing you, right?" The Pikachu's eyes narrowed and it nodded, "That means I'm your trainer now. I'm not going to ask you to do anything drastic, but please listen for now. If you don't want to deal with me after I lay everything out, I'll release you no questions asked. Okay?" Pikachu seemed to think about it before nodding and settling down though it still looked a bit hostile, "My names Valkyrie Potter though I prefer Vali..."

She laid out everything on the Pikachu and made it clear that she would do her best to make it the strongest it could possibly become. She admitted that she wasn't sure what exactly she wanted to do, but her goal at the moment was to complete the gym challenge to get into the pokemon league. By the time she finished, Pikachu still looked a bit skeptic, but didn't immediately ask to be released. She held out her hand to Pikachu and the electric type slowly moved forward until she could touch it. Its eyes closed as she gently began to scratch behind its ears. Vali smiled at it before taking out her pokedex. The Pikachu looked at the pokedex with a frown, "This will just tell me how strong you are."

Vali took out the bowl of food she'd made for the Pikachu before she'd left and watched it eat for a moment before scanning it.

 _Pikachu, the Mouse Pokemon._ _Whenever Pikachu comes across something new, it blasts it with a jolt of electricity. If you come across a blackened berry, it's evidence that this Pokemon mistook the intensity of its charge. Its nature is to store up electricity. Forests where nests of Pikachu live are dangerous, since the trees are so often struck by lightning. While sleeping, it generates electricity in the sacs in its cheeks. If it's not getting enough sleep, it will be able to use only weak electricity. It raises its tail to check its surroundings. The tail is sometimes struck by lightning in this pose._

 _This Pikachu is male and has the ability Static. This Pikachu knows the moves Tail Whip, Thunder Shock, Growl, Play Nice, Quick Attack, Thunder Punch, and Electric Terrain._

Vali hummed at the move set, "You're a pretty powerful guy especially since you have two egg moves," Pikachu flicked his tail slightly as he finished eating, "Do you want a nickname? My Charmander and Growlithe have nicknames. Pidgey didn't want one."

Pikachu shook his head and curled up. Instead of being bothered by that, Vali leaned back against the tree that sat by the pond. Smaug walked over and followed Pikachu's example. Balto decided to wander by the pond and snap at the reeds as Pidgey settled in the tree above her. Instead of looking for a Poliwag like she'd originally planned, she decided to use the time to create a training plan for Pikachu. She would probably be better off training her current four pokemon and worry about getting more later once they'd all gotten to know one another. While a Poliwag would definitely make the first gym easier, she knew that with enough training, her current team could beat it. They would have to train hard though.

* * *

When she met up with Steven for dinner, he looked at her curiously, "Catch anything?"

"I decided not to," She said while releasing her team after setting out food for them all, "I need to get to know my current team better and I know that I can beat the first gym with them. We just need to train hard. I also scanned Pikachu and he's got a pretty strong move set,"

"So I guess you'll be using our time here to train them," Steven said as she began eating.

"I'm also going to see if I can battle a few of the other newer trainers," Vali really wanted to see what battling was like not to mention she could use more money especially if she wanted to get TM's when they finally made it to Celadon, "We'll need the experience for when we battle Brock,"

Steven inclined his head, "On our last day here, why don't we battle? While my older team members can beat you, it'll be good experience."

Vali thought about it before nodding liking the idea, "Sure!"

* * *

Vali's first battle was with a stocky boy with short black hair and a pair of square glasses. He fixed his glasses as he released a Rattata, "Rattata, we're in a battle."

Vali chose to release Pidgey, "Pidgey, we're battling that guy. I have faith in you," Pidgey trilled at her before focusing on the Rattata, "Let's start off with Sand Attack,"

Pidgey kicked up dust towards the mouse pokemon as it's trainer shouted, "Dodge it!"

Thankfully, Sand Attack's 100% accuracy kicked in and ensure that it couldn't dodge. Vali called out, "Tackle that Rattata while it's distracted!"

Pidgey's speed training kicked in and she managed to hit the Rattata as it was attempting to clean the debris that had hit its face. It squealed in surprise as it went rolling until it hit one of the nearby trees. It pushed itself onto its paws and growled at Pidgey in anger. Pidgey rushed towards it with another tackle only for the other trainer to shout, "Hit it with a Quick Attack when it gets close!"

"Pidgey dodge it!" Vali shouted and Pidgey quickly swerved to avoid the rat before it could land a hit, "Now Tackle it!"

Pidgey slammed into the rat earning another squeal. The battle continued like that until Pidgey managed to slam into the rat hard enough to send it flying into a tree. The Rattata couldn't handle anymore hits and slumped as it fell unconscious. Pidgey chirped and flew over to Vali. Vali congratulated the bird with a smile and fed her an Oran berry. The other trainer shook his head as he returned his fallen pokemon, "I have a long way to go with Rattata before I can even think of trying to battle again."

"Try teaching it Bite and increase its speed," Vali suggested as the other trainer handed her a small wad of cash, "Rattata and Raticate are pretty quick,"

"I might just do that," The other trainer smiled at her, "Thanks for the suggestion,"

"No problem," Vali told him before continuing to walk.

It was as she did so that she heard the sound of growling and shouting coming from one of the alleyways. Feeling curious, she walked towards the alleyway and found a shocking sight. A group of teenager were kicking at a grimy bundle of fur that was weakly growling at them. The bundle attempted to attack with what looked like a weak Shadow Ball only to be cut off by a kick to the head that sent it sprawling. Anger coursed through her veins as she shouted, "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"It's none of your business," A sleazy boy that reminded her of her cousin smirked as he sent another kick at the bundle, "Just run along,"

"Attacking a pokemon that's clearly not able to defend itself is definitely my business," Vali growled as Pidgey made a hissing sound.

"It's my goddamn pokemon, so I can do anything I want with it," The boy's eyes went to Pidgey, "Trying to be a trainer little girl? Don't make me laugh,"

Vali released her pokemon earning wide eyed looks, "Do you really want to test me?"

The boy snorted and took out a pokeball, "I didn't even want the weakling anyway."

He crushed the ball and walked away, "Let's go guys."

They took off and Vali made her way over to the bundle. She felt sick at the sight of blood and was tempting to send her pokemon after the teenagers. Instead, she took out one of her empty pokeballs knowing that it probably wouldn't make it to Nurse Joy. The bundle snarled at her and she could see hazy amber eyes glaring at her, "Easy, Little One. I'm not going to hurt you," It snarled at her and attempting to charge a Shadow Ball only for the attack to fade away as shivers racked its body, "I just want to help you. Please, I just want to take you to Nurse Joy. She'll heal you," It's snarls and growls weakened as its eyes began to flutter, "I promise you that I won't hurt you," Her pokemon began speaking to the trembling bundle that began to hack up blood, "Please."

The bundle's growls cut off as it fell unconscious and Vali caught the injured pokemon. She would release it after Nurse Joy healed it. She returned everyone save for Balto and Pidgey before racing off towards the pokemon center.

* * *

Vali hugged Balto to her chest wondering just why people like those teenagers existed. She jolted as a cup was held out to her and looked up to see Steven. He smiled weakly at her, "I figured you could use this."

"When did you get here?" Vali asked taking the mug and sniffing it only to be met by the rich smell of coffee.

"Thirty minutes ago," Steven answered earning a surprised look, "Nurse Joy told me about what happened and I can honestly say I'm proud of how you acted. You did save a pokemon's life after all,"

"We won't know that until Nurse Joy's finished," Vali's stomach rolled at the thought of the pokemon she had rescued dying.

"Still you gave it a chance," Steven sat down next to her causing Pikachu to sniff at him before deciding to follow Smaug's example and ignore the other trainer, "What are you going to do if it survives?"

"Officer Jenny told me that she'd be taking it as evidence and would probably send it to Professor Oak to be rehabilitated," Vali answered hugging Balto a bit tighter causing the Growlithe to whine and lick her chin, "Why do people like those teenagers have to exist?"

"I don't know," Steven sighed softly, "I honestly don't know," Vali noticed the grimace on his face and wondered if he'd dealt with people like that before, "Have you called home yet?"

"No. I probably should," Vali didn't get up and Steven seemed to understand.

He reached out to pat unoccupied shoulder, "I'm going to call the Professor and then call home. Do you want me to tell him?" Vali nodded knowing that she would have a hard time getting the words out, "Then I will. I'll be back after I'm done."

* * *

Vali ended up staying up all night waiting for news about the pokemon before Nurse Joy finished. The Nurse walked over to Vali as the witch put down Balto and stood up causing her pokemon to all wake up, "Nurse Joy, how is it?"

"Eevee will recover, but it will take a few months for him to physically recover," Nurse Joy answered making Vali feel relieved if a bit shocked to hear that the teenagers had been abusing an Eevee, "Mentally, I'm not sure. Would you like to go in and check on him?"

"Please," Vali said earning a smile.

Nurse Joy showed her to where the bandage covered Eevee was sleeping. The nurse set a hand on Vali's shoulder, "I'll be back in thirty minutes to come get you."

"Of course," Vali smiled at the nurse and went over to the bed with her pokemon following.

"You did a good thing, Miss Potter," Nurse Joy said before disappearing through the door and closing it behind her with a soft click.

Vali sat down in the provided chair and looked at the heavily bandaged Eevee feeling anger run through her. Every member of her team looked at the Eevee with uncertain and sad eyes. Vali spoke as she carefully reached out to stroke the uncovered ear of the Eevee as gently as possible, "I know that some of you probably knows this already, but some humans are the worst. The ones that hurt Eevee are among them. I've dealt with them almost all my life before I came to this world. Three of them were my own blood kin, but I don't consider them kin anymore," The hot sting of tears welling up in her eyes was ignored as she focused on Eevee, "I never want any of you to deal with people like that. We have to get strong enough so that way we can keep people like them from hurting us. We can't let pokemon like Eevee suffer when we can stop it," Her pokemon were silent, but Vali could tell they were thinking about her words, "Eevee, I doubt that you even care if you're listening, but I promise the people that did this to you won't get a chance to do it again. Not all humans are like them," Vali began feeling sleepy, "I'm so sorry that you were hurt by them even if my apologies don't do much."

* * *

Steven followed Nurse Joy into the room that she'd left Vali and paused feeling his lips quirk into a smile. Vali was fast asleep with her head pillowed on her arms and her face facing the injured Eevee. Scattered around Vali and the Eevee were Vali's pokemon team, they seemed to be holding a vigil and guarding the two that were sleeping. Steven walked over to Vali and carefully picked up the younger trainer. She let out a soft murmur, "Eevee..."

Steven looked at her pokemon and they made their way over to him though Pikachu was looking at him with unease. Steven made his way out of the room and Nurse Joy told him, "Make sure Miss Potter knows that Eevee will be held within the center until Officer Jenny has finished booking those boys and investigating them."

"I will," Steven told her before heading up to Vali's room.

He carefully let himself in using her key before opening the door and moving over to the barely slept in bed. Balto pulled the back the covers earning a smile from him before he placed Vali onto the bed. She immediately curled up on her side and Steven covered her with the blanket. He turned to leave only for Vali to grab the sleeve of his suit. He looked back at her to see hazy emerald green eyes staring at him, "Eevee?"

"He'll be fine, Vali," Steven told her, "I'll watch over him,"

"M'kay," Vali released his sleeve and her pokemon began curling up around her though Smaug ended up laying on top of a fire-proof blanket.

Steven left her and shut the door after him as Metagross spoke through their link, " _Master Steven, why did you not ask us to assist you?"_

 _'_ Sometimes it's better to do things by myself,' He replied as he walked back downstairs and got food for himself, 'I can't have you do everything for me,'

 _"Friend Vali is an odd one,"_ Metagross commented as Steven grabbed his food and moved to a table to eat.

'But she's also a good person,' Steven replied earning the equivalent of a shrug, 'Can you monitor Eevee? I want to keep my promise to Vali,'

 _"Of course, do you also want me to inform you when Friend Vali awakens?"_ Metagross asked earning a mental equivalent of a nod from him, " _Then I shall,"_

* * *

When Vali woke up, she was confused to find herself within her room at the pokemon center. The last thing she remembered was falling asleep watching over Eevee. She pushed herself into a sitting position feeling exhausted. A soft bark sounded from next to her and she looked to the side to find Balto staring at her. The rest of her pokemon made themselves known and she asked, "How did we all get here?"

" _Master Steven brought you back to your room four hours ago,"_ An unfamiliar voice sounded causing her to jerk slightly in alarm, " _Do not be alarmed, we are the Metagross on Master Steven's team,"_

'Oh, sorry,' Vali wasn't used to any psychics save for Professor Oak's Alakazam contacting her via telepathy, 'Where is he?'

 _"He is currently battling a trainer with the blue turtle,"_ Metagross answered as Vali slowly got up and began to stretch, " _The injured fox, Eevee we believe he's called, is currently unconscious though his brain waves show he will regain it within the next few hours. Master Steven wishes for us to inform you that Eevee will be staying within the center until Officer Jenny is finished booking the teenagers,"_

Vali thanked them before focusing on her team who all looked at her with concern, "I was just talking with Metagross. I'm going to go take a shower and then we can head downstairs to get something to eat."

* * *

After her shower, she got ready for the day and finally checked the time which said it was almost one. Heading downstairs with her pokemon, she walked over to Nurse Joy. Nurse Joy looked up from her computer screen and smiled at her, "Good afternoon, Miss Potter. What can I do for you?"

"Hi, Nurse Joy," Vali greeted her, "How is Eevee?"

"He's still unconscious, but he's stable and will survive so long as he doesn't have a relapse," Nurse Joy answered making Vali sigh in relief, "Officer Jenny won't be sending him anywhere for at least two more days,"

"Did she say where he would be going?" Vali asked with a frown.

Nurse Joy looked down at her computer and typed on it, "At the current moment, Professor Oak is being gifted custody of Eevee until he heals. There are a few things up in the air especially when it comes to Eevee," Nurse Joy looked up at Vali, "It has been decided that Eevee will remain on your trainer ID and it's likely that you'll be given custody of Eevee once his physical wounds are healed. Many pokemon react better to those that saved them in situations like this,"

Vali's eyes widen, "Really?"

"Yes though it depends on Eevee's recovery if that happens," Nurse Joy told her earning a nod before the woman frowned, "Of course, even if you gain custody of Eevee, he might not recover from his ordeal. Some pokemon can't,"

Vali already knew that, "I know, Nurse Joy...Trust me, I know."

She was still recovering from the abuse she'd suffered after all. Nurse Joy looked surprised by her words, but didn't verbalize whatever questions she had. Instead, the pink haired woman said, "Go get something to eat, I will inform you when Eevee wakes up,"

Vali nodded and headed to the cafeteria. After she got food for her and her pokemon, they moved to sit down and eat. Steven came in not long after that and got himself some food. When he got to her table, she asked, "How did your battle with Squirtle go?"

"He managed to win," Steven said as he sat down, "I've found a lot of things we're going to have to work on in order for him to reach the strength of even the weakest of my older pokemon, but I already knew that," He looked at her curiously, "How are you feeling?"

"Fairly tired," She answered after eating a bite of pizza, "Eevee's going to be sent to Professor Oak in a few days. Thank you for taking me up to my room,"

"No problem," Steven replied with a light smile, "What are you going to do now?"

"I'm going to call home since I did promise I would call at least once per town," Vali glanced down as Pikachu curled up in her lap, "I want to introduce Pidgey and Pikachu to my family as well as check to see if Sirius has left yet,"

Steven blinked and looked up at her, "He's a ranger, isn't he?"

Vali nodded after taking a bite of her pizza, "Yeah. He works for the Kanto sect of the Ranger Union. He didn't want to be a pokemon trainer, but still wanted to work alongside them. He's only took time off to spend time with me on my birthday and see me off if I became a trainer."

"That actually makes me curious," Steven told her, "How come you decided to become a trainer? With your background, I was sure you'd decide to become a ranger,"

Vali didn't answer until after she'd eaten her last slice of pizza and was finishing her drink, "It wasn't until a few months ago that I really decided that I wanted to be a trainer. One of the older trainers that Professor Oak sponsored stopped by the lab when I was there to get his pokemon fully checked over and to see all of his pokemon at once. I got curious when I noticed him walking beside a three legged Ninetales since I've never seen a three legged pokemon before. According to him, they'd gotten stuck in a blizzard after fighting against a wild Tyranitar. Most of his pokemon save for Ninetales were unconscious at that point though she wasn't that far off since her leg had gotten mangled, he had attempted to return her, but she'd refused," Vali's mind went back to the day she'd met the beautiful Ninetales, "She wouldn't let him return her even when they'd found a cave to stay in for the night. He'd done everything to return her after trying to take care of her leg. Even when she'd passed out, she wouldn't let herself be returned. If she hadn't have refused, he would've died in that storm. By the time the storm stopped and he managed to get to a pokemon center, Ninetales' leg had been severely infected and had to be amputated," Vali put down her cup and looked at her team as they stared back at her, "Even after most trainers would've abandoned their pokemon, he never did. I realized right then and there that I wanted to be a pokemon trainer. I saw just what I would get out of becoming a trainer. The bonds you can create with your pokemon, your family..." She smiled warmly at them, "That's what I wanted," She looked back at Steven as a blush coated her cheeks, "Sorry if I rambled."

"It's fine," Steven smiled warmly at her, "It lets me know more about you,"

Vali finished her drink and stood up, "I better go call my family. Do you want to train together after that?"

"Sure," Steven nodded to her.

* * *

Vali typed in the Ketchum/Black/Potter residence number and waited for someone to answer it. Pikachu and Pidgey looked at the electronic device in confusion prompting her to tell them, "This is a video phone, it lets me see my family even if we're thousands of miles away. I'm going to be introducing you two to my family or at least, most of them if my god-father isn't there."

The screen blinked and Ash's face appeared, "Hell-VALI!"

"Hey, Ash," Vali greeted him with a grin, "Are Delia and Sirius there?"

"Yeah," Ash turned his head and shouted, "MOM! SIRIUS! Vali's on the phone,"

There was a crash followed by a stream of curse words and barking that could only mean Sirius was home. Vali giggled as she listened to the cause before she shook her head lightly, "I'm surprised Sirius hasn't left yet."

"He's going to be leaving tomorrow," Ash answered earning a nod from Vali, "Did you catch anythin-Is that a Pikachu?"

"Pikachu, Pidgey," Vali gestured to the screen, "This is my adoptive little brother, Ash. Ash, this is Pikachu and Pidgey. I caught Pidgey the day I left and Pikachu a few days back,"

"Pup!" Sirius shouted loudly, "Has Stev-"

"No, Sirius," Vali cut him off before he could get started, "Steven' been nothing but nice to meet. Anyway, I want you to meet Pidgey and Pikachu," The two stared at Sirius with slightly wide eyes, "Don't worry, he isn't usually quite so deranged. He just misses me,"

"Pup, I'm not deranged," He whined at her earning an eye roll.

"I wouldn't say she isn't wrong," Delia said with a laugh as she appeared, "Hello, Vali. Hello to you too Pikachu and Pidgey. How is everyone?"

"We're doing great. I haven't had much of a chance to see what Pikachu can do yet, but I will soon enough since Steven and I are going to be training together once he's finished eating," Vali answered while reaching up to scratch behind Pikachu's ears earning a coo of pleasure, "Pidgey's not quite as strong as either Smaug or Balto just yet. She'll get there. Smaug, Balto, and Pidgey have all battled at least once. Smaug helped me catch Pidgey which was my first ever battle while Balto helped me catch Pikachu. I used Pidgey in my first trainer battle yesterday..."

She trailed off though Delia and Sirius seemed to understand why. Delia turned to Ash, "Why don't you go upstairs and grab that drawing you wanted to show Vali?"

"Oh right!" Ash shot away, "Don't hang up before I call back!"

"How is Eevee?" Delia asked earning a sigh.

"According to Nurse Joy, he'll heal," Vali continued scratching behind Pikachu's ears finding comfort in the action, "He's being sent to Professor Oak in a few days. He'll stay there until he's physically healed,"

"What's going to happen to him after?" Sirius asked her curiously.

Thinking back to her conversation with Nurse Joy, Vali answered, "Nurse Joy said that depending on Eevee's recovery, Professor Oak will send him to me so that I can help him recover mentally. He's staying on my trainer ID," Vali frowned slightly, "While I'm happy that I'll get the chance to help him heal, I'm not sure that I am the best person to do it. I'm still recovering from my messed up childhood not to mention the stuff that happened during school. How can I help him when I'm still broken?"

"Because you're healing," Delia answered looking at her sternly, "Vali, you're probably the best person that can help Eevee. You saved him from those boys and you'll probably be the first person he sees when he wakes up. In my honest belief, you'll help each other heal. Don't doubt yourself, Vali,"

"I just...How am I even supposed to start?" Vali asked with a sigh.

Delia let out a soft laugh, "I recall having a similar conversation with Professor Oak about a certain little girl," Vali flushed lightly, "Do you want to hear the advice he gave me?" She nodded, "Be patient and kind. Don't push him and eventually you'll get through."

Vali felt a bit more at ease and smiled at her, "Thanks, Delia."

"No problem, Vali," She replied before asking, "So what are Steven and you planning to do?"

"We're going to stay in Viridian for five more days since we rented our rooms for a week," Vali answered earning a nod, "We're going to stock up on potions, antidotes, and stuff like that on the last day before heading into the Viridian forest. While we're probably going to be facing mostly Bug Catchers, it'll be useful getting battle experience not to mention I'll be able to save up money to buy TMs and other things. We'll head to Pewter and I'll challenge the gym leader,"

"Flint Stone's the gym leader, isn't he?" Sirius asked earning a nod from Vali, "He's a rock type trainer. How are you planning on beating him?"

"At first, I planned on getting a Poliwag alongside teach Smaug and Balto whatever steel type moves they could learn," Vali answered earning a nod, "But seeing as I have two newly caught pokemon not to mention that Smaug's still fairly new, I thought it would be best to not catch another pokemon for now. I'm going to seriously study Flint and see what kind of plans I can create. I know even with a disadvantage that I can win so long as we train as hard as possible,"

"Good," Sirius smiled proudly at her, "Never give up,"

Vali flushed lightly as she remembered a talk that Steven and her had, "I also figured out a goal I might try for."

"You're going to try and become a Fire-type master?" Delia asked much to Vali's shock.

How did she-Vali shook her head. Of course she knew, everyone probably guessed she'd do that since she had an unexplained bond with any fire type pokemon she'd come across while at the Corral, "Yeah. Steven reminded me that even if I become a Fire-type master, I can train other pokemon. I mean even Agatha has non-ghost type pokemon even if she mostly trains ghost types," Vali dropped her hands, "If I do try to become one, it means I'll have to travel a lot in order to meet a whole bunch of fire types which means I won't be home as often."

"That's fine, Vali," Delia told her as Sirius nodded, "If that's what you want to do, we'll support you not to mention we kind of knew this would always happen," Vali flushed lightly, "It will be hard on all of us, but we believe in you,"

"So do whatever you want to do, Pup," Sirius told her, "No matter what, we'll be proud of you,"

"Just don't forget that you promised to travel with Ash when he's old enough to go on his own journey," Delia told her earning a nod.

"I won't ever forget, but..." Vali flushed lightly, "Just encase, could you write it down and remind me of it from time to time? I really don't want to forget it on the off chance I become too distracted,"

"Already done," Delia told her earning a thankful look.

Ash rushed back up and proudly presented a picture of a few blobs and stick figures, "I drew this during art at Pre-school today. It isn't very good..."

Vali settled down to listen to Ash with a soft smile on her lips. She had around six years before he was going to become a trainer. That sounded like a lot of time, but she knew it really wasn't.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997: Okay before anyone complains about the attacks and stuff, I wanted to lay this out. It doesn't make sense that attacks that could be learned in earlier generations can't be learned now. I'm going to ignore that fact. I will also be putting up a list of Vali's pokemon and their pokedex entry including their attacks on my profile at some point soon.**

 **Word count around 15,600 which is way more than my usual. But I did have to do some world building. What's a good pokemon fic without world building? Anyway, here's the next chapter. Tell me what you think or if you have an idea for an extended pokedex entry. Also who should I use as the Cerulean Gym Leaders? It can't be Misty or her sisters. Misty is Ash's age and her sisters are Vali's age.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Twister60:** **I'm really glad.**

 **Jostanos: You'd make a good outro guy.**

 **917brat: Thanks a lot for the wonderful review. I'm glad you like it and don't worry, I'll be keeping this up.**

 **DraaIzilUss: Thanks. To tell you the truth, I don't really know yet. I'm heavily debating it though I suppose it could be worked into my plans. I would need a really good reason for her to keep it though.**

 **ThunderClaw03: That she does, but she will heal.**

 **frankieu: Thanks! I was debating having Lance or one of the others be her traveling partner, but decided to pick Steven. He isn't used very often, ya know? I wanted her to have a goal. What can we say, Ash's a kid. He'll still be attempting to become a Pokemon Master, but he wouldn't be Ash if he didn't.**

 **xirons: You mean story, right? But thank you.**

 **greenespeon1995: Thank you!**

* * *

 **Edit: Just some spelling errors...I should probably get a beta or something.**

* * *

Chapter three

* * *

On the day Eevee finally woke up, Vali had been visiting for most of the morning though she would have to leave soon for lunch and training with Steven. Vali didn't notice Eevee was awake at first due to Pikachu getting into a fight with Smaug that was quickly getting out of control. She grabbed Smaug as Balto pounced on Pikachu, "Both of you, you're going to wake up Eevee with your noise. You heard Nurse Joy, he needs to rest," Both looked a bit sheepish though Smaug was looking away from her, "I know both of you are going a bit stir crazy, but have some patience please."

Pidgey let out a trill prompting Vali to look at her. Pidgey pointed her wing at the bed and Vali looked down to see Eevee's eyes open. She smiled warmly at the Eevee though she didn't get close to him, "Hello, Eevee. I'm happy to see that you've woken up. You gave my partners and I quite the scare," Eevee glared at her and hissed, "I know you probably don't want to see another human after what happened, but I kept my promise to you. You're in a pokemon center and your former scumbag of a trainer and his cronies is being put behind bars. I..." Vali took a deep breath, "I got you to Nurse Joy and you're going to make it. I don't know what to say to you other than the fact I'm so happy that I managed to get you here in time," Balto nuzzled her lightly as he got off of Pikachu, "You're going to be taken to Professor Oak's in a day or two now that you've woken up."

The door opened and Nurse Joy entered, "Vali, you're time is up."

"Eevee woke up," Vali told the nurse gaining a relieved smile.

"Say your goodbyes for today," Nurse Joy told her before leaving the room.

More than likely, she would be gathering some equipment to do a deeper check on Eevee now that he was awake. Vali turned to Eevee as she slowly stood up, "You heard Nurse Joy, it looks like my partners and I have to leave. I'll be back tomorrow to see how you're doing and tell you about Professor Oak. You'll probably enjoy the corral a lot once you're healed up," Vali reached out only to pause when Eevee growled and dropped her hand making the growling stop, "I won't push you Eevee. I just want you to know that I hope you'll get better. I'm not allowed to release you right now otherwise I would because that's clearly what you want. I hope that you eventually see that not all humans are bad, but that's going to take a lot of time. Trust me, I know the feeling," Vali put down Smaug and headed for the door, "See you tomorrow, Eevee."

Vali held the door open for her pokemon and walked out behind them before closing it. She paused and stared through the glass observation window at Eevee. He glared at her through the glass. She smiled at him and waved before heading down the corridor towards the lobby.

* * *

Vali walked into the room and found Eevee staring out of the window. With twitching ears, he turned and immediately began growling at her. Instead of coming in close like before, Vali took a seat in the far visitors chair by the door. She spoke as Eevee glared at her, "Hello, Eevee. I hope you're doing better today. I heard from Nurse Joy that a lot of your minor injuries are healing quickly which is really good since it means you'll probably be healed sooner rather than later. At least, physically speaking you're healing."

Vali continued talking along that vein for awhile before she began speaking of Professor Oak and his corral. She tried to paint the most vivid picture of it possible with Balto adding in his own thoughts and feelings about the place he'd grown up in. Eevee stopped growling after awhile and turned away from them though his twitching ears told her that he was listening. Eventually, Nurse Joy came in and told her it was time to leave. Reaching into her bag, she took out the Flareon plushy that Delia had gifted her back during those first few weeks in this world and placed it on the edge of the bed. She spoke as Eevee continued to ignore her, "I know you'll probably destroy this since it came from a human, but I'm still giving it to you. Delia, someone that's like a mother to me, gave it to me no long after I arrived in this world. It's comforted me when I was being over whelmed by how many adults were coming around me. I was like you, but it's only since I came to this world that I'm healing. I'm not going to ask that you don't destroy it since that's asking too much of you. I only hope that if you don't it will bring you comfort when you need it," Vali turned and began leaving the room only to pause when she heard the thump of something soft hitting the ground, "I'll see you tomorrow, Eevee."

She opened the door for her pokemon and walked out once they'd left. She paused at the glass observation window and saw Eevee looking out of the window. The Flareon plush was on the floor. Instead of getting mad, she shook her head and headed towards the lobby.

* * *

Vali saw the Flareon plush on the ground as she walked in. The scene from the day before occurred again with Eevee glaring and growling at her while she sat down in the far visitors chair. She resumed talking about the same things as yesterday while mentioning that tomorrow would be the day he'd be taken to Professor Oak. She did pick of the Flareon plush and brushed off the dirt while feeling glad that it had been made to withstand the damage of relatively weak attacks. She could feel teeth imprints as she worked to get rid of the dirty. She didn't get mad at Eevee like he probably expected her to. She didn't even bother mentioning the plush even when she set it on the bed and left him for the day, "I'll see you tomorrow, Eevee. I'll miss you while you're with Professor Oak."

* * *

It was sunny the day when she had to say goodbye to Eevee. A part of her resented the fact that he would be taken to Professor Oak, but she pushed those feelings away. The same event that had occurred the last few days since he woke up happened. Vali spoke to Eevee as she cleaned off the Flareon plush. It was only when Nurse Joy appeared and told her it was time did she deviate. She put down the Flareon plush on the bed and touched Eevee for the first time making him stiffen with a growl. She gently scratched behind his ears while making sure her fingers didn't stray to injured section, "This is goodbye for now, Eevee. I'll miss you. I hope that we'll see one another soon," Eevee slowly began to relax, "I...I really don't know what to say other than I hope you heal quickly. With any luck, we'll be able to see one another again. I know you don't trust humans, but I hope you'll give me the benefit of the doubt. Be safe, Eevee."

With her goodbyes given, Vali left with her pokemon after they'd said their own piece. Vali let her back rest against the door as tears began to form. She didn't know why the thought of not seeing Eevee again for a while made her cry. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths when she heard footsteps. She looked up and found Steven standing there. He smiled sadly at her, "Everything will be alright Vali."

"I know which makes the fact I'm crying even more confusing," Vali pushed off the door and walked over to Steven as she wiped away the tears, "I...Is it odd that I'm sad that I'm not going to see Eevee for awhile?"

"No," Steven shook his head lightly and they started walking towards the lobby, "Sometimes all it takes is a serious moment and spending just a little bit of time with a pokemon to get attached. All you can do is move forward,"

A few hours later Vali watched Officer Jenny leave with Eevee's pokeball in hand and felt her heart drop a little. She resisted the urge to run after Officer Jenny along with the urge to return to Pallet town. Steven placed a hand on her shoulder and she looked at him, "Steven?"

"Let's go train," Steven advised earning a bark of agreement from Balto.

Vali nodded knowing that it would help keep her mind off of Eevee not to mention her pokemon could use it.

* * *

Vali checked her bag one more time and made sure she had all of her stuff before zipping it up. She pulled it onto her bag and grabbed her room key before heading out. She met Steven downstairs, "All set?"

"I only need to get my pokemon back from Nurse Joy," Steven answered as they headed towards the front desk.

They had both decided to get their pokemon one last check up before leaving Viridian. Vali had also got an extra poison resistance shot since they were heading through Viridian Forest. While it probably wouldn't be needed, it was best to play it safe especially since she hadn't been training for more than a week. Nurse Joy greeted them with a smile as they handed in their room keys, "Leaving today?"

"Yes we are," Steven answered as Nurse Joy took out two trays and set them onto the counter.

Vali took her four pokeballs, "Did anything come up during their check up?"

"No, they're all good to travel," Nurse Joy told her earning a relieved sigh, "Though I will mention that you might want to keep an eye on Pidgey while you travel through Viridian Forest. It's a hunting ground of both the Pidgey line and the Spearow line. The local Beedrill do not like them and will likely go in for the kill if they catch sight of her,"

Vali nodded taking the warning as seriously as possible as she took out her pokedex and Steven took out some device she hadn't seen before. She opened onto the map-function, "Nurse Joy could you please point out the parts of Viridian Forest that are used as Beedrill nests?"

Nurse Joy granted the request and did so for both of them. They left soon after that and Vali asked, "What is that?"

"It's prototype of the newest Pokenav," Steven answered holding it out to her as they walked and she took it from him curiously, "My father wanted me to be one of the field testers. Unfortunately, it's still a big buggy and can't call outside of the current region. By this time next year, my father hopes to have all the bugs figured out,"

"It seems interesting. I might have to get one at some point," She handed the device back to him.

Steven smiled and put it away, "The pokenav is really useful. My old one allowed me to take calls anywhere, it had a map that updated via satellite, allowed me to keep track of my badge count, take videos of my battles, and things like that. The feature I liked most was it's ability to connect with my current teams pokeballs and tell me a bit about them. Mostly it was their current physical state and how they were feeling."

* * *

Viridian Forest was like a maze of trails both marked and unmarked. Not even a five minute walk inside and the trees were already making it dark, Vali breathed in the musky scent of the forest and watched as various small pokemon run around. Mostly it was a Caterpie or a Weedle, she did see a few Rattata running around though each of them took off the moment they became aware of the humans walking on the path. Vali spoke as they passed by a small pond, "I've never seen so many bug types before."

"Oh?" Steven glanced at her.

Vali shook her head as Balto and Pikachu looked around curiously. Pidgey was eyeing the bug types while Smaug looked around warily, "No. Professor Oak doesn't have many at the lab most of the time. I mean there was that time when a fire happened in here, but I wasn't allowed at the lab since it was fairly dangerous what with the influx of wild pokemon."

"That's understandable though," Steven looked around as Squirtle trotted after him, "What started the fire?"

"According to Sirius and the other Rangers that had gone to help the pokemon living here, the fire was started by an absent minded newbie and his Charmander," Vali's mind went back to that day, "The kid was apparently trying to catch a Rapidash during the migration that was happening at the time. The kid ended up losing his license for two years. From what I remember, the kid's under strict watch by the League and isn't allowed a fire type for another year,"

"What happened to the Charmander?" Steven asked curiously.

"I'm not sure though either Blaine took it in or it was sent to the reserve that's somewhere in Johto," Vali wasn't too sure, "I think it would've gone to Blaine though since it wasn't born in the wild and the reserve apparently only has wild ones," Vali bent down to rub Smaug's head as she said, "I'm going to be keeping an eye on both Smaug and Balto. Despite how lush and wet this place is, it is summer and there's no telling how dry it will get," She looked at Steven, "Sirius would murder me alongside Professor Oak if I started the next Viridian Forest forest fire,"

He chuckled softly, "Well, I'll have to have Squirtle keep an eye out for fires then."

* * *

By the end of their first day in the forest, Vali and her pokemon were tired of bug catchers. Most didn't have more than a barely trained Weedle or Caterpie, it was far too easy to defeat them even with Pidgey and Pikachu doing most of the fighting. By the end, Vali just had Smaug and Balto burn their opponents into unconsciousness. Steven battled as well with both Lileep and Squirtle which made the bug catchers seem a bit more difficult than she was probably letting on. They were still fairly weak and came in droves. Vali managed to get quite a few poke-dollars to add to her trainer account when they got to Pewter. They found a decent sized clearing that actually had the stars shining down on them just before sunset, so they set up camp.

Steven helpfully had Claydoll pull up a few boulders for them to use as target practice. Vali had Smaug working to learn Metal Claw as Balto worked on Iron Tail alongside Pikachu. Pidgey was working on learning Steel Wing from Skarmory alongside Gust. After stretching, Vali and Steven began running sprints before doing push ups. By the time they finished training for the night, Smaug's claws looked both sharper and shinier while Balto and Pikachu's tails showed no sign of change. Vali sat down after getting her pokemon their food and commented, "It looks like Smaug might learn Metal Claw faster than Balto and Pikachu learn Iron Tail."

"It could go either way as Balto and Pikachu need to build up strength in their tails before they'll be able to even think about channeling steel type energy into their tails," Steven replied as they started eating their own meals, "Neither of them use their tails for much while Smaug uses his claws daily,"

Vali nodded as she took out her pokedex to scan through all three of their pokedex entries before opening up to the time it generally takes for them to learn the moves she was teaching them, "True enough. According their pokedex entries, it shouldn't take more than three weeks for them to learn it though that's just the general amount. I think they could probably learn it within a week and half to two weeks," She looked at her pokemon, "What do you think? That should be enough time for you to get those moves down, right?"

Balto barked and wagged his tail as Pikachu sparked up while pumping his fist. Smaug spat out a small burst of embers that were quickly doused by Squirtle. Smaug glared at the turtle, but didn't retaliate. Steven shook his head with a soft laugh, "According to the map, we're at least five days from Pewter, but given how easy it is to get lost not to mention the fact we'll be taking it slow tomorrow, we should get there in at least a week if not a few days after."

Vali nodded while changing to the map of Viridian Forest, "If we stay on this path, we'll pass by at least one Beedrill nest during the time. There's one about eight miles north and two miles east of here."

"You'll have to keep Pidgey in her ball once there is an increase in Weedle and Kakuna," Steven noted as Vali put her pokedex away.

"I know," Pidgey hopped onto her knee after finishing off her bowl of food, "You heard him, Girl. You're going to have to stay in your ball for a little while either tomorrow or the day after,"

Pidgey trilled as she nodded her head in understanding. Vali scratched the Pidgey's breast feathers earning a coo from the bird. Balto, Pikachu, and Smaug finished their food before coming to curl up around her. Vali finished off her sandwich and yawned softly, "I think I'm going to turn in for the night."

"That isn't a bad idea," It was only around nine but today had been fairly rough on her pokemon who weren't used to battling so much despite their rather easy time beating the bug catchers, "I'll have Aggron and Claydol watch us tonight,"

Vali nodded as no one wanted to wake up to whatever bug types decided to attack during the middle of the night. Sleep took a little while as she listened to the nocturnal pokemon going about their lives, but eventually she did.

* * *

The next two days were fairly relaxed, but the days after that were not. The first Beedrill nest was passed by quickly and quietly with the rather violent bug types merely watching them pass by. The second one, about three miles from the first, was harder to get through as the Beedrill were agitated due to the presence of a flock of Spearow. They managed though and didn't start having truly bad luck until the fourth day inside the forest. They were chased off the path by not only a large swarm of Beedrill feuding with a second flock of Spear led by a mated pair of Fearow which meant dodging not only the pissed off bees, but also a bunch of pissed off birds as well. They also had to run into two dens filled with aggressive Raticate and their Rattata babies. When it started to look up on the sixth day, they found themselves in a rather harsh thunderstorm with abnormally cold rain.

Steven quickly had Claydol create a shelter for them once they managed to find a relatively high hill. Steven pulled out a steel grey cube-like device that she recognized from one of the catalogs she'd gone through since she'd decided to become a trainer. It was about the size of his palm and expensive as hell. He tapped a button in the center causing it to glow red like a pokeball and pointed it towards the ground. A large pile of dry wood appeared and Steven had Claydol construct a fire pit before he began placing some of the wood down before asking Vali, "Can Balto or Smaug light this on fire?"

Vali released Smaug and gestured to the fire pit, "Mind lighting the wood in there?"

Smaug nodded and spat out an ember at the wood immediately causing it to catch on fire. Vali thanked him as she released her other pokemon. Steven smiled lightly, "Good. We should probably change into some dry clothes."

Vali nodded in agreement and turned away from Steven to get out some dry clothes. Even with changing into some dry ones, Vali was still cold and cuddled Balto to her chest. Her other pokemon curled up around her though Smaug laid his laid on the ground to prevent it from burning her, she spoke as they got settled down, "How long do you think the rain will last?"

"I'm not too sure though it shouldn't last more than a day as it isn't storm season," Steven looked at her in concern, "Are you alright?"

"Just cold," Vali was grateful for her pokemon, "I'll be fine as soon as I warm up," She looked at him, "How come you aren't shivering?"

"I've been colder," Steven told her as he leaned back against Aggron, "Though I will admit that it's a bit surprising that it's so cold right now. I didn't think Kanto got any out of season weather,"

"Strange things do happen," Vali leaned back against her book bag and looked at her drying clothes which sat by the fire, "How long until they dry off?"

"They should dry off by tomorrow. I'm surprised your shoes didn't end up soaked through," Steven said looking at her shoes.

Vali flushed lightly as she rubbed between Pikachu's ears earning a soft chaa of pleasure, "I might've used what magic I could to prevent to make them truly water resistant. I can't do much, but small things like that aren't too hard."

Steven chuckled softly, "It makes me wonder what else your can do."

Vali shrugged only to stop when Pidgey nipped her ear showing her displeasure at the act, "To be honest, I'm not too sure what all I can do. Without a wand helping to guide my powers, it's difficult to use them. I'm trying to train myself, but wandless magic is really hard on the body."

"Really?" Steven looked at her curiously.

Vali nodded lightly as her mind went back to when her wand stopped working for her, "Had it been about a year ago, I wouldn't have been able to make my shoes truly waterproof which out going unconscious and the spell failing. Sirius has it a bit easier than me mostly because of his animagus form."

"The 'grimm' right?" Steven asked earning a nod, "Do you think you'll be able to do something like that?"

Vali shook her head, "Not any time soon, maybe in a few years."

* * *

The rain didn't let off for two days and traveling through Viridian Forest slowed down considerably until the mud dried. It slowed further when they came across another nest of Beedrill and a third den of Raticate. They were even more aggressive than the last ones and Steven's Metagross had to create psychic barrier around them to keep from getting hit by any attacks. By the time they made camp, all of them were too tired to train and Claydol ended up keeping up some psychic barriers since there was a chance that the aggravated pokemon would attack them. They also weren't the only ones to face any problem thanks to the storm and had come across multiple bug catchers or other trainers that had gotten hurt because of the aggressive pokemon. Of course, they did come across one casualty from the aggressive pokemon and were given a show of the true nature of pokemon.

Vali covered her mouth and swallowed back the bile that rose up in her throat as Steven ushered her away from the scene. A boy, he had to be younger than her by a year at least, was being feasted on by a whole group of Raticate and Rattata. When they were far enough away, Steven stopped pushing her and she finally released the contents of her stomach into a bush. She felt Steven pull back her hair, but focused on getting rid of what was in her stomach. By the time she was done, she was shaking and could barely hold the water bottle Steven gave her. It took her a few minutes before she could properly focus and by that time, Metagross had appeared and held two pokeballs in their hands. Steven took them as she asked, "W-where did they get those?"

"I had Metagross go back and collect the boy's filled pokeballs," Steven explained making her pale at the reminder of the scene they'd passed, "I'll be sending them off to Professor Oak once we get to the pokemon center in Pewter," He looked at her in concern, "Will you be alright?"

Vali nodded after drinking a bit more water, "Y-yeah. I just didn't expect to see anything like that so soon into my journey or that those pokemon would be doing it. I mean I know they're omnivores, but..."

"It must have been the storm," Steven theorized as he placed the pokeballs into his bag, "We'll have to be more careful while we travel the next few days," He placed a hand on Vali's shoulder and squeezed lightly, "I'm sorry you had to see that, Vali. While it's better that it happened sooner rather than later, it is still a bit much for a new trainer,"

Vali closed her eyes, "I-it's okay."

Steven didn't say anything in reply since there really wasn't anything he could say. While they taught the true nature of pokemon in schools, they also made training a pokemon seem like a fun adventure. Later that night after they'd gone to sleep, Vali had woken up due to a nightmare with the boy's body being replaced by Sirius'. Steven had woken up to her screaming, but instead of getting angry, he had simply pulled her into a hug and held her as she cried. He hadn't asked what she'd seen only offered her words of comfort and let her fall asleep against him. In the morning, she had gotten embarrassed, but Steven waved it off and said that he hadn't minded it as well as expected it.

* * *

The rest of the trip through Viridian Forest wasn't as bad as those few days, but they did end up encountering quite a few more aggressive than normal pokemon. The plus side of the trip meant her pokemon not only learned their moves, but also managed to get every other move they knew down pat. Pidgey had also picked up Gust and Quick Attack which would only benefit her flying type in the future. It was as they were traveling out of the forest that they encountered an incredibly foul tempered and bigger than normal male Nidoran that seemed to have it out for them. Balto managed to take it down with Metagross backing him up, but Vali had ended up hit with a Poison Sting attack. Most of the needles missed her, she ended up with five sticking out of her side.

As soon as they were out of Viridian Forest, Steven had her sit down and began pulling out the poisonous needles with a pair of specialized tweezers. Vali grit her teeth as Steven got them out, "Let's never go in there again, okay?"

"Agreed," Steven finished pulling out the needles and began cleaning off the blood that had spilled from the wounds which wasn't much, "This will sting a bit," Steven pulled out a can of antidote from her bag and began spraying it causing her to hiss in pain even as it made the chill of the poison vanish, "I'm glad you got those extra poison resistance shots,"

"Me too," Vali closed her eyes, "I wonder what made it so angry. The storm happened almost a week and a half ago. They're usually docile unless challenged or their heard is under attack,"

Steven finished spraying the antidote and capped it before pulling out some bandages, "It was alone which isn't normal unless the pokemon was captured. Either it got separated from it's herd during the storm or it was kicked out for whatever reason."

Vali sighed as she opened her eyes, "Well whatever the reason, we should probably get out of here and get to Pewter since that Nidoran will probably come looking for us as soon as it wakes up," Steven nodded in agreement as he finished patching up her side and moved away from her allowing Vali to pull her shirt down again, "I'm definitely going to see one of the doctors in the Pokemon center just to be on the safe side," Balto whined softly and she reached out to pet him as she glanced down at her pokeballs, "I also want to get my pokemon checked out and get in a shower,"

"Let's get going then," Steven finished packing up and held out a hand to her and she took it allowing him to help her up, "I'm sorry for not pulling you out of the way,"

Vali shook her head as they began heading towards Pewter city which was a few miles ahead of them across some plains, "Don't worry about it, we're all tired from the last two and a half weeks not to mention I should've been a lot more careful," Steven looked like he wanted to argue, "Neither of us noticed him directing that attack at us since we were sure our pokemon had knocked him out. At the very least, the whole event will make sure I'm more aware of my surroundings even when I'm so tired," Steven still looked like he wanted to argue, "How about you restock my antidotes in return?"

"I can do that," Steven still looked like he was about to apologize.

Vali ran a hand through her hair and grimace, "I'm definitely getting a shower in the moment I can though,"

She had been lucky that Steven didn't mind her borrowing Squirtle to get rid of most of the dirt and sweat that coated her body. She still didn't smell very good, but at the very least, she was fairly clean. Steven made an agreeing noise after sniffing his shirt, "I think that makes two of us."

"I'm also going to be pampering my pokemon when I can. They definitely deserve it after everything," Balto let out a soft woof showing his agreement.

* * *

Entering Pewter city, they headed towards the pokemon center using Steven's map app on his Pokenav. The pokemon center was smaller than the Viridian City one, but then again, it usually only catered to trainers during the first few months of the season. The Nurse Joy offered them a kind smile, "Viridian Forest?"

"Yes, Ma'am," Vali offered her a weak grin beginning to feel kind of light headed, "Could we get two rooms and our pokemon checked out?"

"Of course," Nurse Joy nodded and Vali returned the only pokemon currently out which was Balto, "Anything else?"

"She got hit with around five Poison Sting needles from a male Nidoran that was far more aggressive than normal," Steven answered as they placed their pokemon onto the trays that Nurse Joy had set on the counter, "As soon as we got out of the forest, I took out the needles and provided field care for the injury. Can she see one of the human doctors on staff?"

Nurse Joy immediately offered Vali a look of concern, "Come into the back with me, Miss..."

"Vali," Vali said as she handed over her pokedex which held her trainer ID.

"Vali," Nurse Joy took the pokedex while looking at Steven, "Please wait out here, I will give you the room keys once I've gotten Vali taken care of,"

"Of course," Steven nodded as he looked at Vali in concern.

Vali would have said something if she didn't feel sleepy or light headed. Nurse Joy began directing her into the back only for her vision to go grey as her ears rang.

* * *

Steven looked at Vali's feverish form in worry, "Is she going to be okay?"

He had been extremely worried when she'd collapsed like a puppet with it's strings cut in the lobby. While he had noticed her getting a bit pale towards the end of their walk to the pokemon center, he hadn't thought much of it since they'd just spent two and a half weeks underneath heavy tree cover. Not to mention, he'd been sure that he'd gotten rid of the poison with the antidote.

"She will be fine," Nurse Joy assured him as she directed him to sit down on one of the guest chairs scattered through out the human recovery wing in the pokemon center, "That Nidoran must be close to evolving as it's poison was stronger than it usually is,"

"I suppose," Steven sat down in the chair, "When will she wake up?"

"It shouldn't be more than a day or two," Nurse Joy moved to Vali and began to mop up the sweat coating her brow, "Honestly, I'm not surprised this happened. Five Poison Sting needles is a bit much for anyone even with the double resistance shot she has. She is still young, so these things will happen," Nurse Joy looked at Steven, "I would advise against traveling for at least a week and a half. While she'll bounce back, she'll be fairly weak during that time even when her fever breaks,"

Steven nodded already planning on them staying in Pewter for three weeks. Vali's team would need as much time as possible to prepare for their first gym battle. He also wanted to explore the museum and talk to Flint about Mount Moon. He looked at Vali again and felt his heart drop a bit. He was the experienced trainer between them and should have been paying more attention. She should've never gotten hurt-Steven jerked back and looked at Nurse Joy in shock as his hand went to his forehead which had just been flicked, "Nurse Joy?"

"I doubt Vali would like you blaming yourself for what happened," Nurse Joy told him with a kind smile, "Accidents will always happen, they just occur more often with wild pokemon being involved. Instead of blaming yourself, I would advise you to think of ways to prevent it,"

Steven looked at Vali and decided that Nurse Joy was right.

* * *

Vali's head was pounding and her body felt sluggish as she slowly came to. She groaned softly and slowly reached up to press a hand to her forehead. She felt almost as weak as two years ago. It was disconcerting and made her wonder what happened. She opened her eyes only to groan and close her eyes against the bright florescent light. Once her eyes adjusted, she opened them and found herself looking at what seemed like a hospital ceiling. She grimaced in confusion and turned her head when she heard, "Vali?"

"S-steven-" She started coughing.

Steven held her sit up and drink some water, "Easy, you've been unconscious with a fever for a few days."

"Thank you," Vali murmured after he took the glass away and let her lay back against the pillows, "Why did I have a fever?"

"The Poison Sting was more powerful than we first thought," Steven explained as he sat down on the chair next to the bed, "Your body has been fighting the poison which is why you had the fever and more than likely feel weak,"

Vali remembered them reaching the pokemon center, but that was about it, "Are my pokemon okay?"

They had been hit by the Nidoran's Poison Sting as well and unlike most of Steven's pokemon, her's didn't have an real resistance to poison. Steven nodded lightly, "They're fine and should be leaving Nurse Joy's care by tonight," Vali sighed in relief earning a smile from Steven, "How are you feeling?"

"Weak and my head feels like someone decided to use it as a drum," Vali closed her eyes for a moment feeling tired, "What have you been doing since I fell unconscious?"

"I've gotten all of our clothes washed, I restocked your antidotes as promised, and I also informed your family about what happened," Steven answered making her eyes snap open, "Miss Delia was very relieved to hear that you would be okay though she wants you to follow Nurse Joy's orders as best you can. After realizing you were going to be okay, Ash began asking if you'd have a scar from it," Vali's eyes rolled since of course her little brother figure would ask about scars since they were 'cool', "Miss Delia also mentioned that she would be telling Mister Black as well as ensuring that he wouldn't charge over here the moment he could to check on you. She wants you to call her as soon as you can,"

Vali smiled and shook her head, "Thank you, Steven. I doubt I would've been able to tell them everything."

Steven chuckled softly, "No problem, Vali. I should go tell Nurse Joy that you've woken up."

Vali remembered the boy's body in the forest and asked, "D-did you send the pokemon off to Professor Oak?"

Steven paused in the middle of standing up before continuing, "Yes and he told me a bit about the boy," He sighed softly, "His name was Grant Fuller and he was a student at one of the pokemon academies up until a month ago due to the fact he got frustrated due to not progressing as fast as he wanted. He took his Shellder and Pidgey and left the academy. No one knew where he'd gone, but now they know where he ended up. Nine years old and already dead."

Vali and Steven both grimaced at that. Clearly, the academy he'd gone to hadn't prepared him enough. Nothing would ever really prepare someone for a pokemon journey which was why things like that could happen.

* * *

Vali was out of the recovering trainers wing within two days of waking up with the warning to take it easy. While she didn't really mind the place, she didn't like sitting around and doing nothing. Even going through her pokedex and going over strategies for her first gym battle only kept her mind occupied for a little bit, she did spend a good bit of those two days sleeping to regain her strength and bonding further with her pokemon which was nice. The first thing she did after leaving the recovering trainers wing was go to the room she'd gotten and take a long shower. She also took the time to give all of her pokemon a bath though Smaug didn't get into the tub. He sat on a stool sitting inside a rather large metal tub holding his tail up while she scrubbed his scales clean. While Smaug's species could bathe themselves by breathing fire onto their scales, they couldn't always get everything.

Vali headed downstairs to get some lunch and found Steven waiting in the cafeteria. He looked up and smiled at her, "Have a nice shower?"

"Yup and I pampered everyone a bit," Vali said while gesturing to Pikachu.

Pikachu sparked happily which showed of the sheen to his fur. A proper cleaning had really helped the cautious pokemon get closer to her which was the whole reason she did it. Steven let out a laugh and they went to go get food, "That's good. Have you decided what you're going to do?"

"I think I'm just going to call my family to check in and spend a bit more time relaxing with everyone," Vali answered as she chose a bowl of spaghetti, a small bowl of mixed fruit, a few rolls, and a bottle of water, "I think we're all still a bit worn down from the forest,"

Steven nodded as they headed towards a table after getting some food for their pokemon, "That doesn't sound like a bad idea."

Vali made sure her pokemon were satisfied with their meals before asking, "How long are we going to be in Pewter?"

"Three weeks," Steven answered earning a surprised look from Vali, "I had planned on staying here that long before we encountered that Nidoran, so it didn't really mess up any plans. You'll need at least a week and a half to fully recover according to Nurse Joy. Since this is your first gym battle and you don't have any pokemon that have an advantage over rock types, I felt it would be best to give you more time to train," Vali nodded as she began eating, "I also thought that would give me ample time to learn more about the Museum here and Mount Moon,"

Vali's mind went back to one of the pokemon she'd been hoping to catch at some point, "Sandshrew can be found at Mount Moon, right?"

"Yes. Did you want to catch one?" Steven asked her curiously earning a nod, "May I ask why?"

"To be quite honest, they're my favorite ground-type outside of Tyranitar, Camerupt, Flygon, and Garchomp," Vali admitted with a sheepish smile, "I've always loved how they and their evolved form battle. They may not be as powerful as some pokemon, but they're experts at battling especially once they're under ground. They're also really cute,"

Steven chuckled at her last comment, "I will admit that they're an interesting pokemon and that I was hoping to catch one as well," At her curious look, he explained, "They're excellent diggers and can easily extract stones from rocks with far more precision than most humans are capable of. They're said to be better than even Drilbur and Excadrill though I'm still going to try and find an Excadrill as they are a steel-type,"

Vali took out her pokedex as she remembered one of the facts that Professor Oak had told her during his lecture on the Sandshrew line about six months back, "Here we are," She read over the extended entry, "Sandshrew and Sandslash are rather unique among ground types. Much like the Swinub line, they have an incredibly sensitive nose which helps them avoid underground water springs while tunneling. They can be trained to find specific types of stones though only in their first form," Vali looked up at Steven, "I suppose that's why you want one right, you like finding precious stones."

"Yes," Steven held out his hand and she handed over the pokedex, "Interesting, I didn't know about that particular ability though I suppose it explains how the leagues are able to procure evolutionary stones for both the league trainers and those that win them in league sponsored tournaments. I don't remember seeing this in my pokedex before,"

"Professor Oak does lectures on certain pokemon every few months and so long as you're there for it, he'll upload an extended entry for said pokemon into your pokedex though he only does it for those that won't abuse the information," Vali explained earning a surprised look from Steven, "I used to sit in for all the lectures that I could both because they're interesting and because it would help me work with any pokemon that I may end up meeting," She flushed lightly as she admitted, "It also got me out of having to do some extracurricular activities with my classmates which was a boon to me since most avoided me on principle due to the fact I was new to Pallet and I was weird," Vali took her pokedex back when he handed it to her and resumed eating her lunch, "Professor Oak didn't mind letting me sit in for the lectures even when school was going on since I would be working with the pokemon that call his corral home whenever I could,"

"You don't really connect with people, do you?" Steven asked earning a nod as shame ran through her.

Vali set down her fork as she admitted, "I never have and most of it was caused by my cousin deciding that he didn't like any of the other kids coming near me growing up. He did it on the orders of my aunt and uncle because they didn't want anyone to find out that the rumors they spread about me were wrong or that I was being abused," She stared at her food, "Connecting to people even without their influence is hard for me."

Vali looked up at Steven expecting to be mocked only to earn an understanding look, "Some people can't connect well with others. I have trouble connecting with people as well though I've managed to overcome my difficulties mostly due to my father and some of the trainers I've become friends with," Steven smiled at her, "I suppose you connect better with pokemon?"

"Yeah. They're a lot easier to understand then again so where the animals that I used to encounter back in my old homeland," Vali had honestly preferred the company of animals back in her old world, "They never had any ulterior motives. Not all of them liked me, but they never hid behind masks and facades. The same can be said with pokemon for the most part,"

* * *

Vali called Delia after lunch, "Hello-Vali!"

"Hey, Delia," Vali greeted her with a grin, "Sorry I couldn't call you before now,"

"It's fine since Steven explained what happened. It sounds like the last few weeks haven't been very fun," Delia replied with a sad smile and Vali shrugged lightly feeling her right side twinge slightly in protest, "An abnormally cold rainstorm, territorial pokemon, and wild pokemon attacks,"

"It sounds like a bad movie title to be honest," Delia laughed softly at Vali's attempt to lighten the mood, "I'm better now though I'm going to take it easy for the next week or so. We aren't planning on leaving Pewter for three weeks,"

"That's a good idea," Delia seemed a bit relieved by her words which Vali could understand since the last two and a half weeks really had sucked, "How are you feeling?"

Vali sighed softly, "I'm still really tired, but I'm definitely feeling a lot better than I did after I first woke up," Delia looked relieved making Vali feel guilty, "Have you told Sirius yet?"

"Not yet, he's currently on a mission near Mount Silver and can't talk to anyone at the moment," Delia answered making Vali wonder what he would be doing around there, "Oh yeah, Regulus finally evolved into a Houndoom,"

"Really?" Regulus had been a Houndour since she'd first met him back when Sirius managed to pass enough classes to get a partner from the ranger union, "I was wondering when it would happen since he's been with Siri for a year and a half now,"

"He's absolutely gorgeous too," Vali would bet on that since Sirius kept Regulus in excellent conditions.

Vali hoped she'd be able to see them at some point if only to congratulate Regulus on the evolution. She pushed that thought out of her mind, "So are you off today or is it a lunch break."

"A lunch break. Ash is currently at the corral," Vali was surprised since she thought the boy would be at day camp, "Mary finally had her baby, Travis took the day off to spend time with his family in Viridian, and Luca's still on her sabbatical which means there is anyone to that can take all the kids,"

"Well at the very least, Ash won't be bored and will be learning valuable skills," Vali offered.

"True," A bell sounded in the distance, "That would be my lunch, Vali..."

"I'll call you before we leave Pewter and again when we reached the pokemon center before Mount Moon," Vali promised earning a grin, "Tell Ash I said hi if he isn't there when I call Professor Oak,"

"I will. Be safe and good luck with your gym battle," Delia told her before they hung up.

* * *

After everyone had gotten a day to relax and be pampered, they went back to training. Vali spent a lot of time on Flint's trainer page making note of the pokemon he commonly used during first badge battles. He usually used two of three pokemon. He switched between Geodude, Rhyhorn, or Onix. Of course, he did sometimes pull out an unexpected pokemon like Nosepass though it depended on the amount of trainers he usually battled against during the day. She hoped that it would be Geodude and Rhyhorn as those two would be the easiest ones to counter; however, she was aware that she would probably only face one of the two and Onix. She would need to prepare as much as possible for any of the three during the next two weeks. Two weeks should be enough to allow her pokemon to become strong enough to get over type disadvantages leaving the rest to recover from their gym battle. If she lost, she could always come again at a later point in the season even if it meant the battle would be a full six on six.

They would have to do their best regardless and Vali knew they could win. With that determination, Vali had them practicing the moves they could use. They needed to be able to charge them up faster and make them more powerful if they were going to win. She also looked up teaching Smaug Smokescreen which would benefit them in a battle since it could provide him cover. She began making plans on how to teach it to him since it was in his natural move set. She looked up from her pokedex when Steven sat down next to her, "Hey, Steven. Done raiding the library for the day?"

"For now," He looked at her pokemon which had been joined by his, "What are you guys doing today?"

"I'm mostly having them work on charging their attacks faster. While they have them down, they're charging them at a slow rate which isn't going to win us any battles in higher tier fights," Vali looked at Smaug charging up his Metal claw and noted that it took less than a minute which was better, "I'm also trying to figure out who to use in my first gym battle. Since none of them have an advantage, I'm having a lot of trouble deciding. I know that I want to put either Smaug or Balto out despite their disadvantage, but that doesn't help me decide since Pikachu and Pidgey have been working hard too. While Pidgey won't be affected by any of Flint's ground-type attacks, she'll end up losing if she gets hit by a rock-type attack due to her fragile body. The same could be said for Pikachu especially since he doesn't have the advantage of not being affected by ground type attacks," She pulled up her notes on Flint and showed Steven, "Flint usually uses Geodude, Ryhorn, or Onix with a few others like Nosepass though it depends on the amount of trainers he's battling during the day. I can't use Pikachu against Ryhorn simple because his electrical attacks will be absorbed by Ryhorn's horn which acts as a natural lightning rod,"

Steven looked over her notes with a critical eye, "Maybe you should use Balto and Smaug? Both are fast and don't have fragile bodies not to mention Balto is an experienced pokemon. From your notes, you're planning on teaching Smaug Smokescreen which will definitely be a great help in dealing with the rock types. Flint will also not be expecting to face two fire types in a row especially not one that isn't usually found near here."

Vali thought about it carefully before nodding, "I think you're right plus I can always use Pikachu and Pidgey in the next gym battle especially since the leaders use water type pokemon."

Steven handed back her pokedex, "How are you planning on teaching Smaug Smokescreen? It won't be too easy to teach despite being a part of his natural move set."

"There are videos online and in the pokedex," Vali returned her pokedex back to the page she'd been looking at, "It shouldn't be too hard especially since he already releases a minor amount of smoke each time he breaths. Charmander and many other species capable of using the move produce small amounts of potassium nitrate which is the main ingredient used to make smoke bombs. All Smaug has to do is release the chemical from wherever its stored within his body and release it into his inner flame which he will then be able to breath it out thus creating Smokescreen. Of course, it won't be very dense as his body isn't storing much of it both due to him not knowing the technique and because he doesn't really need much,"

"Where did you learn that?" Steven asked with a raised eyebrow.

Vali hummed lightly, "Professor Oak has a Charizard and didn't mind telling me about his species especially since he was reviewing the material for his lecture on them about a year and a few days ago."

"I should definitely sit in on some of his lectures when I have the time," Steven decided making her giggle, "So other than that, what will you be teaching Balto?"

"Reversal. Rock-types are weak against fighting-type moves," Vali had marked it down earlier when she was looking for moves her pokemon could use, "I'm also planning on teaching him Retaliate at some point,"

"A good plan though it'll be tough for Balto to learn Reversal since he both isn't a Fighting-type and doesn't have any arms," Steven noted earning a shrug from her.

Reversal was a move Balto could learn and she'd be damned if she didn't help him learn it.

* * *

A week into training, Vali decided to give her pokemon a half-day and headed to the Pewter city museum with Steven. The museum was two stories high and huge. They ended up spending most of their time in the exhibits from Mount Moon and the one about fossil pokemon. She ended up pointing out a few specimens that either Professor Oak contributed or Sirius did through the Ranger union. She found out more about Steven's love of all things stones and his rather vast knowledge on them though he supposedly still had a lot to learn. She also ended up telling him about her wish to actually have a Aurorus. While she may love fire-types to death, she absolutely adored the ancient ice-type.

* * *

Vali was able to get experience battling against rock and ground-types thanks to Pewter being a hub for them. She won and lost an equal number of battles though each one proved to be a learning experience that would only help her in the long run. Smaug learned Smokescreen near the end of her two week deadline while Balto was struggling heavily with Reversal. While she had wished he would've learned it by now, she understood that the move was very hard for him to learn because of his lack of arms. He still had Iron tail which would definitely help with their gym battle.

Steven scheduled his gym battle the day before hers and she went to go cheer him on as well as get a look at Flint's battling style in person. Seeing videos was nice, she would feel better watching in person. It would give her an even better understanding of his battling style which would only benefit her pokemon more. The Pewter city gym was a bit lackluster on the outside since it just looked like some boulders piled onto one another, but the inside more than made up to it. The field was perfect for rock-type pokemon while also allowing for other pokemon save for water types to have an even ground. It wouldn't exactly help, but it wouldn't hinder either. As they walked into the gym, Vali spotted a man that she recognized due to the videos she'd been watching ever since Viridian City. Flint was an imposing man with tan skin and spiky brown hair. Flint's eyes were closed which made her wonder how he saw anything. He wore a yellow t-shirt with rolled up sleeves, a black belt with a silver buckle, dark teal cargo pants, and black shoes. Flint spoke as they reached the battlefield, "Which one of you is the challenger?"

"I am, Sir," Steven said as they stopped, "My friend is only watching the battle today,"

"She will be coming in tomorrow for a battle, won't she?" Flint asked looking at Vali earning a nod, "I see. Head into the stands,"

"Good luck, Steven," Vali told him.

"Thank you," Steven replied and she headed to the stands.

Taking a seat, Vali watched as a referee appeared. The man spoke, "This is a gym battle between Pewter Cities Gym Leader Flint Slate and Steven Stone of Mossdeep City in Hoenn. The battle will be a two on two with only the challenger being allowed to switch."

"It's time to battle Squirtle," Steven said sending out his Squirtle as Flint sent out a Goedude that looked bigger than normal and had a few scars on its body, "Start off with Water Gun,"

"A type advantage? While smart, it won't win this battle for you," Flint called out with a smirk, "Geodude dodge and use Rollout,"

Squirtle let loose a powerful stream of water that Steven had managed to make powerful enough to shatter small boulders. While Geodude had managed to dodge it for the most part, the rock-type let out a groan of pain as it was clipped by the very edge of the attack. That didn't stop Geodude before curling in on itself and rushing towards Squirtle at a speed that the rock-type shouldn't be possible. Squirtle wouldn't be able to dodge in time and Steven knew it so he called out, "Squirtle hunker down and use Withdraw! When it hits, hit it point blank with a Bubble Beam into Water Gun."

Squirtle withdrew into his shell just in time, but that didn't save him from the powerful attack. Squirtle was quick to follow Steven's instructions and managed to hit Geodude with a Bubble Beam that clearly hurt it though the rock-type managed to get away before it could be hit by the Water Gun that followed. Flint chuckled softly, "You're not doing too bad, Kid. Geodude, hit that Squirtle with Rock Throw."

Geodude dug into the ground and pulled out some rock chunks before beginning to throw them at Squirtle. Squirtle dodged them as Steven called out, "Squirtle, keep dodging as best you can and use Withdraw when it becomes too hard. When there is a break in his attacks, use Water Gun again."

Vali's heart was beginning to beat harshly in her chest as the battle continued. Despite being a younger pokemon, Squirtle wasn't doing that bad. He was doing pretty damn good. From what she can tell, Flint's strategy with Geodude was mostly hit hard and fast. If she had to face Geodude, it might be best to send out Smaug first if only because Smokescreen would offer the best benefits. Squirtle did as his trainer asked though it was clear dodging wasn't his favorite thing in the world. He would need a lot of stamina training which she didn't doubt Steven was now noticing.

Geodude had a lot of attack stamina, but even it had to take breaks. Squirtle managed to hit it with a powerful Water Gun which sent the Geodude skidding back. It wasn't enough to knock it out, bit a few more would probably do it as the water was clearly taking a toll on the rock-type. Geodude let out a grunt as it pulled itself up and Flint called out, "Geodude use Rock Polish and Defense Curl!"

"Squirtle hit it with as powerful a Water Gun as possible!" Steven called out with a slight frown showing that he didn't like the combination Flint was trying.

Rock Polish would make it faster while Defense Curl would raise its defense making it harder for Squirtle to hit the rock-type much less deal damage to it. Squirtle managed to disrupt its focus, but only after it had used Rock Polish. Flint looked a bit displeased by the disruption, but went with it as he called out, "Rollout again, we need to knock that turtle out."

"Squirtle wait and hit it with Bubble Beam!" Steven called out.

Vali looked at Squirtle and understood why he wasn't ordering his pokemon to dodge. The turtle was panting hard and was probably having trouble moving too much. Even with the training he'd been put through, Squirtle had the lowest stamina outside of Bulbasaur between the three Kanto starters. Squirtle grunted and watched the blur that was Geodude approach before releasing a a beam of bubbles that rushed towards the rock-type. Geodude powered through the attack and rammed into Squirtle sending the turtle flying. Squirtle landed roughly on his side and laid there panting as Geodude stopped rolling around. Both pokemon looked a little worse for wear, Squirtle was the worse off than Geodude. Squirtle struggled to his feet and managed to stay there though it would probably only take another good hit before the turtle passed out.

Flint chuckled softly, "That Squirtle of yours is well trained for such a young pokemon."

"Thank you, but it's all Squirtle," Steven replied before looking at his pokemon, "Do you wish to continue?" Squirtle grunted and nodded as his body gained a blue aura to it that looked like water, "Very well,"

"Geodude," Flint called and the rock-type glanced at him, "That turtle activated its ability, we need to end this quick. Use Rollout once more!"

Geodude grunted in reply before doing as its trainer bid. Squirtle glared at Geodude as it blurred towards him and Steven called out, "Use Bubble Beam with as much power as you can muster!"

The Bubble Beam Squirtle unleashed was far more powerful than any that he'd released before which only proved how strong a pokemon's attacks were if abilities like Torrent were involved. An mini-explosion of dust was kicked up and took a few minutes to clear. When it did, Squirtle was passed out on the ground with Geodude barely managing to stay conscious long enough for the Referee to say, "Winner Gym Leader Flint! Challenger release your next pokemon!"

Squirtle was returned and Steven called out Aggron, "Squirtle was taken out. I need your help, my friend."

Aggron let out a metallic growl as Flint returned his passed out Geodude and released an Onix which was by far the largest pokemon she'd seen. It was a dark almost black grey showing that it was an older pokemon and covered in scars from a past battle. Steven would have his hands full with this one, but she knew he would win. Aggron was definitely more than enough to beat that monster. Flint let out a whistle, "An Aggron? It's been a long time since I've seen one of them. Well, Mr. Stone, you just turned into an even more interesting opponent."

Steven smiled lightly before turning his head towards Aggron as the large steel and rock-type roared out a challenge towards his opponent, "Aggron, I want to start off with Metal Sound."

Vali quickly covered her ears which didn't exactly help much to block out the horrible screech that left Aggron's throat. If there was one move she disliked, it was that Metal Sound. Onix roared in agony as Aggron charged up a Flash Cannon which only increased the Onix's pain as the silver and grey beam slammed into it as it tried to recover from its exposure to Metal Sound. Flint looked displeased, "Onix, shake off the pain and immobilize that Aggron with Rock Tomb!"

Onix created a ball of rocks above its head before sending it at Aggron. Aggron let out a grunt as he was hit with the rocks and subsequently became trapped. Steven frowned slightly, "Aggron break out with Iron Tail and hit that Onix with Ice Beam. Trap its tail!"

While Aggron was breaking out of Rock Tomb, Onix headed underground with dig. Aggron let out a cry of pain as Onix appeared under him, but got revenge by hitting the rock and ground-type with a point blank Ice Beam causing Onix to cry out again. The battle between the two giants continued along that vein for a while before Aggron managed to hit Onix with a Brick Break right where its head boulder connected to the rest of its body. Onix went down with a grating groan and didn't move after that. Aggron let out a roar of victory and turned to Steven. Steven smiled warmly at his pokemon as Aggron walked over. Vali rushed down from the stands and said, "That was amazing, Steven! I was kind of worried when Onix hit Aggron with that Dig, but then Aggron managed to use Ice Beam on it!" Vali looked at Aggron and beamed at the giant, "You were awesome, Aggron! That was the best battle I've seen in person so far!"

Aggron let out a pleased growl at the praise as he lowered his head and allowed her to scratch underneath one of his horns as he wagged his tail slightly. Steven let out a laugh, "You aren't wrong. Nicely done, Aggron."

Aggron let out a contented growl that changed into a slight snarl when Flint cleared his throat. Steven shushed Aggron as Flint said, "The girl is right, Mr. Stone. The battle was one of the best I've had so far this season."

"Well, you can thank my pokemon for that," Steven said as he returned Aggron, "They've trained very hard for every battle we've fought,"

"I do not doubt it," Flint inclined his head before holding a badge out to Steven, "Here is the Boulder Badge. I hope that when you finish collecting the badges this season that you'll return so that we can battle on even footing. I'd like to see what you can do against my real league team,"

Steven nodded and shook Flint's hand after taking the badge, "I would mind though I hope you don't mind me coming by to pick your brain about Mount Moon while Vali and I are in town."

"Of course not," Flint smiled at Steven before turning to Vali, "I hope you and your pokemon put up a good fight, Miss..."

"Vali Potter," Vali answered earning a nod, "I hope we do, but you shouldn't expect too much since I've only been a trainer for a month and a half give or take a few weeks,"

"Well, I'm still looking forward to the battle," Flint replied before shooing them, "You should get that Squirtle checked out. I have another challenger today that should be arriving within the hour,"

They said their goodbyes and headed out of the gym. Steven looked at her as they left the gym, "So how do you think you'll do tomorrow?"

Vali was silent for a little bit before replying, "I think we can manage it. While we might not put on much of a show, we should be able to win."

"If not, we can always come back at a later point," Steven said earning a nod, "Though I'm sure you'll win,"

Vali grinned at him, "You bet we will! By the way," She looked at Aggron's pokeball as well as Squirtle's, "You really were amazing out there. I really can't wait until my team and I reach your level."

"I look forward to our battles when you guys reach that level," Steven told her with a slight grin, "My team is too,"

* * *

The next day dawned earlier for Vali and her team. They were all nervous even Pikachu and Pidgey despite the fact they weren't going to be participating in the battles today. They weren't angry about that fact though it was a little disappointing. They understood why it was happening this way even if it wasn't something they liked. Smaug was a bit more aggressive than normal while Balto had become quiet and still. The two seemed to understand the gravity of the battle that was ahead of them and wouldn't let her down no matter what. Because of this, Vali knew that win or lose, she would be proud of them.

Even if her nervousness was making it hard, she ate her breakfast while going over the strategies that she had. Steven watched her with a slight smile though he did take her pokedex away when her fork missed her mouth. With a flush, she worked on eating her breakfast before taking her pokedex back. An hour before her gym battle, she took Balto and Smaug to the training field behind the Pokemon Center, "Okay you two," They looked at her with determination in their eyes, "This is our first official Gym battle, we've been preparing for this our whole time in Pewter and even before then. I don't think I need to tell you how important this battle is," Smaug spat out an ember as Balto let out a soft bark, "We've worked so hard and I know we can do this despite our disadvantages. I want both of you to stay calm and do your best no matter what. Smaug, I'm likely going to be sending you out first mostly because we're likely facing either Geodude or Ryhorn. I don't think I need to explain why," Smaug nodded, "Balto, you're likely going to be facing an Onix," Balto looked a little unsure, "I know the idea is a bit scary, but you can do it. I'm trust you," Balto nodded with a low growl, "Now, I want to say one last thing," They looked at her curiously and she pulled them into a light hug, "Win or lose today, I will be proud of you two. This is the first real chapter in our story together."

Pulling away, shew knew by the looking their eyes that defeat was not an option which only made her heart warm. They would win this!

* * *

Flint was waiting in the same place he'd stood the day before. He grinned at Vali, "Welcome back Miss Vali, I'm looking forward to our battle."

"I am as well," Vali replied with a light smile.

Steven patted her on the shoulder, "I'll be watching in the stands. Good luck, Vali."

"Thanks, Steven," Vali murmured in reply as he headed towards the stands.

Vali turned back to Flint as the referee appeared, "This is a gym battle between Pewter Cities Gym Leader Flint Slate and Valkyrie Potter of Pallet Town. The battle will be a two on two with only the challenger being allowed to switch."

Vali took a deep breath as butterflies erupted in her stomach at the fact she was actually going to participate in her first gym battle ever. Vali took out Smaug's pokeball and released Smaug, "Come out and battle with me, my friend!"

Smaug appeared with a cute roar and spat out a burst of flames as Flint said, "You do realize this is a rock-type gym, right?"

"I'm aware, but I know we can win this," Vali replied as Smaug growled at Flint for dismissing him.

Flint shook his head and took out a pokeball, "Your funeral, I suppose."

He released a Ryhorn and Vali mentally winced having hoped that they would be facing a Geodude. She supposed that it wasn't exactly a bad match-up since the Ryhorn immediately began pawing at the ground and jumping around a bit when it caught sight of Smaug. Clearly, it was a somewhat recent capture which kind of pissed her off. While they couldn't face his real team just yet, he still should've pulled out a pokemon that had more than a few weeks of training on top of being a bit young. Smaug spat out an ember as she asked, "A recent capture?"

"I caught this one a few months ago," Flint replied causing Vali's hands to curl into a fist, "The Rhyhorn I usually use for these battles evolved during a training battle with this one last night,"

So it wasn't because he underestimated her, but rather because he didn't have another choice. She nodded as she let her hands unclench, "I suppose me watching the gym battle yesterday meant you wouldn't let me face a Geodude?"

Flint inclined his head, "Yes. After all, you have no idea what pokemon you'll end up facing every single time. There is also the fact that you've likely come up with a few battle strategies."

Vali didn't offer a reply to him as she called out to Smaug, "We can't play around, Smaug. Despite that Rhyhorn being fairly new, it's still a gym leaders pokemon," Smaug grunted in understanding and glared at Rhyhorn causing the spikes pokemon to snort angerly, "Let's start off with a mild Ember. We need to know what we're dealing with. Dodge when it comes close. If you can, you know what to do."

Smaug nodded and began spitting out Embers at the Rhyhorn. While the flaming coal-like projectiles weren't as powerful as Flame Thrower, they still had range which had increased the longer Smaug used it. The power had increased as well though it wouldn't be until Smaug evolved into a Charmeleon that he would be able to transform that attack into Flame Thrower. Rhyhorn let out an irritated roar when it got hit by the projectiles and moved out the way without showing much pain. Flint shook his head and called out, "Rhyhorn use Bulldoze!"

Rhyhorn snorted and stamped its foreleg onto the ground before rushing forward as an sandy orange aura covered its body. Smaug quickly dodged to the side though the attack still managed to hit him due to the 100% accuracy, but he managed to slash at the Rhyhorn using a quickly charged Metal Claw along with another Ember attack before quickly getting away. Rhyhorn let out a sharp cry of pain as Smaug's claws raked its side as it slid to a stop and slammed into one of the small boulders sitting on the battlefield. Smaug kept up his Ember attack as Rhyhorn pulled itself lose and turned its body around slowly with a low grunt of annoyance. It glared at Smaug as Vali called out, "Keep it up, Smaug."

Smaug nodding though he stopped spitting Embers. Rhyhorn let out a grunt of annoyance and rushed towards Smaug with its horn glowing bluish white meaning it was using Fury Attack. Unfortunately for Rhyhorn, Smaug had tons of experience with that move due to how much the bug catchers with Beedrill and the wild Beedrill loved using that move. Smaug dodged it with a grunt of annoyance and used any chance he could to hit the rock-type with Metal Claw. He also revealed that he'd been practicing to use the Steel-type move with both his hands. Flint frowned, "That's a fast Charmander you have there."

"Smaug's used to dodging Fury Attack. The Bug Catchers and wild Beedrill love that move," Vali replied as Smaug kept scoring hits on the Rhyhorn that didn't seem to understand that it wasn't going to be able to hit the fire-type like it clearly wanted.

Flint shook his head, "I see. Rhyhorn, use Smack Down!"

Vali cursed as Rhyhorn released an orb of ground type energy and spat it at Smaug. Due to the moves 100% accuracy, it hit Smaug sending him flying back. Smaug slammed into the ground with a cry of pain. Smaug slowly pushed himself up as Vali called out, "Smaug!"

He growled, but managed to push himself to his feet. He glared at Rhyhorn panting softly and looking bruised from where the move had hit him. Rhyhorn let out a roar and darted towards Smaug with its horn lit up with Fury Attack. Smaug dodged though Vali knew that the hit from the Smack Down had worn him down quite a bit. However, he wouldn't be giving up and continued to hit Rhyhorn with Metal Claw. Rhyhorn began stumbling a bit showing that the steel-type move was wearing him down. Flint frowned as he called out, "Use Bulldoze again!"

Rhyhorn stomped onto the ground and rushed towards Smaug coated in the sandy orange aura of Bulldoze. Smaug barely managed to avoid a majority of the hit, but worked through the pain to hit Rhyhorn with his dual Metal Claw attack. Ryhorn stumbled again and Vali remembered one of the things Professor Oak had said about Rhyhorn during a lecture a year ago. The underbelly of the Rhyhorn wasn't as strong as the top of its body due especially towards the back due to a majority of the tough plating being focused at its front. With that in mind, Vali called out, "Aim for its underside, Smaug! It's a softer than the top of its body!"

Smaug nodded with a low growl. When Rhyhorn rushed towards him with another Fury Attack, Smaug used the jumping action Rhyhorn used to power up its attacks and slammed two metal claws into the rock and ground-types gut causing Rhyhorn to cry out in pain. Smaug got out from under Ryhorn and scored another hit under the rock and ground-types chin. Eventually the onslaught proved too much and Rhyhorn went down, Smaug stumbled away from the rock and ground-type panting heavily. He looked a little worse for wear, but proud as he turned to Vali. She beamed at him as Flint recalled his Rhyhorn, "That was unexpected."

The Referee called out, "Winner Valkyrie. Gym Leader Flint release your next pokemon."

"Good job, Smaug," She told the Charmander, "Do you want to continue or do you want to return?" Smaug shook his head and turned back towards the battlefield, "Alright, but I'll recall you if it seems to be too much,"

Smaug grunted and Vali realized he was planning to do as much damage as he could before Balto was sent out. Vali's heart warmed at the thought and she mentally promised to give him as many Cheri berries as she could. She also mentally hit herself for forgetting about using Smokescreen during the battle and promised herself to use it in the next one. Flint released his Onix which turned out to be a diffrent one from yesterday. It wasn't as young or as newly caught as Rhyhorn. It was as big as Aggron and about the length of two box trucks. Its boulder body was a concrete grey and it had a few scars though none of them matched the ones that Flint's elder Onix. She was glad that he wasn't using that beast of a Onix if only because they didn't have a chance in hell to beat it at their current level. Maybe in a few months, but not right now. Smaug stepped back a bit before swallowing and letting a growl which caused Onix to roar in reply. Flint chuckled, "That's a brave Charmander you have there."

"That he is," Vali looked at her starter, "Smaug, try to avoid getting close. Use the cover plan we've been going over and do your best,"

* * *

Smaug nodded and turned to Onix with resolution in his eyes and a burning determination to do his best. He wouldn't give up even if it meant going unconscious. Balto would need all the help he could get and Smaug was willing to help his Alpha out. Smaug knew from his talks with the Growlithe that Balto was the alpha of their pack and he, Smaug, would be the enforcer even when they were fully evolved. After all, Balto had known their trainer far longer and thus, was the only one truly able to be called alpha. Smaug clenched his fists and glared at the giant in front of him. He could do this.

* * *

Flint started off the battle, "Onix, use Rock Polish and Rock Throw."

Onix groaned and began to glow a bluish white before using Rock Throw. Smaug released a few clouds of Smokescreen as Vali bit her bottom lip holding Smaug's pokeball in her hand ready to recall him. She watched Onix carefully as Smaug released another few clouds making the cloud cover denser especially around Onix. Onix paused and began looking around as she murmured, "C'mon Smaug."

"Smokescreen, huh," Flint frowned at the smoke, "I'm surprised you didn't use it during our battle,"

"Let's just say you surprised me a bit with that Rhyhorn," Vali was still beating herself up about that since lowering Rhyhorn's accuracy could have saved them a bit of damage with those 100% accuracy attack it had.

Onix let out a roar of pain and began to wither around showing that Smaug had started his attack. He wouldn't be able to keep it up for long, but at the very least, Balto wouldn't be at such a disadvantage. Flint's frown deepened and he called out, "Onix, when it attacks you again, capture it with Bind!"

Onix roared in pain again and seemed to be swishing around his tail. Smaug managed to dodge and release more clouds of Smokescreen prompting Vali to cover her mouth using her shirt. She mentally vowed to get a scarf for moments like these as well as some goggles which would be useful for when Pidgey evolved into her final evolution. Finally, Onix managed to catch her starter and began to use bind on him. Smaug cried out in pain though he did manage to score a few more hits with Metal Claw and Ember before he fell unconscious. Onix released Smaug onto the ground in one of the few clear spaces as the Referee called out, "Winner Gym Leader Flint. Challenger, please call out your next pokemon."

Vali returned Smaug whispering to the pokeball, "You did good. Balto and I will take care of the rest. Rest now, Smaug."

The ball warmed in her hands and shook a bit before stilling as the metal grew cool showing that he'd heard her. Vali placed his ball in its spot before pulling out Balto's pokeball. She released him, "Come out and battle with me, my friend!" Balto appeared in a burst of red light and barked wagging his tail for a few moments before pausing as he took in the sight before him, "Balto," He stepped back a bit at the sight of Onix before looking at her, "Smaug managed to take out Rhyhorn and dealt some damage to Onix before being knocked out. We can't let his efforts be in vain."

Balto barked and stilled tensing as Flint called out, "Another fire-type and a Growlithe at that...Trying to become a fire-type master, are you?"

"Something like that," Vali looked down at Balto as she murmured softly knowing he would be able to hear her, "Avoid that tail as best you can. Onix are slow creatures though this one managed to use Rock-Polish. Hide in the Smokescreen as long as possible while allowing your ears to be your guide if your nose can't find Onix," Balto's ears twitched towards her, "Attack using Ember or Iron tail whenever you can, but do your best to avoid getting hit. Use Leer too, I know we don't use it as much as our offensive attacks, but it will only help us in this case,"

Balto nodded and took off into the smoke as Flint commented, "Well I suppose that explains a lot though it won't help you at all in this case. Onix find that pup and hit it with Rock Throw!"

Onix looked around the smoke which was starting to dissipate now that there wasn't anything producing it. The movements it made would allow Balto to find it through the smoke if his nose wasn't able to sniff it out. She made a mental note to train Balto to be able to smell things through smoke. As a fire type, his lungs were made to deal with smoke even if too much wasn't healthy for anyone outside of those that created it or were from the Magby line. Vali shook those thoughts from her mind as Onix let out a cry of pain as Balto suddenly appeared and slammed his glowing tail into the rocky body of the rock and ground-type. He disappeared back into the smoke before reappearing again from another direction to inflict more damage with that attack plus an Ember attack. Vali murmured softly hoping that Balto heard, "Aim for the base of its head where its body's connected. That's its weak point."

Whether he heard her or not, Balto managed to dart up Onix's body and slam his glowing tail into the crevice between the Onix's head boulder and the next one. Onix let out a louder roar of pain and began to wither as Balto did his best to hit that spot as many times as he could. Onix managed to throw him off, but the damage was done and the giant was beginning to tire out though it wasn't close to passing out. Flint was frowning, "We need to clear away that smoke. Onix, use Dragon Breath and burn away the smoke and try to hit that Growlithe."

"Balto, you need to get out of there or hide behind a rock. Avoid that attack," Vali called out not really wanting to know what would happen if that attack managed to hit him.

Onix reared back and released a stream of green flames that burnt away the smoke. When it was over, Vali couldn't see Balto anywhere making her wonder where he was. Flint had begun to smile only to frown when Balto was no where to be seen, "Where is that pup?"

They got their answer when Balto burst out of the ground with an Iron Tail aimed at Onix's weak point and managed to put enough power behind the attack to send Onix's head to the ground. Balto quickly spat an Ember attack at Onix before darting away. He panted softly as Onix slowly rose up and glared at the Growlithe. Vali smiled lightly, "You learned Dig from Pikachu, didn't you?"

Pikachu had learned the ground-type move back during their trip through Viridian forest though she still wasn't sure where he'd learned it. Vali was grateful since it allowed Balto to avoid taking damage from the dragon-type move. Balto let out a soft yip and wagged his tail before stilling as he growled at Onix. Flint shook his head, "Those pokemon of yours are something else, Onix," The Onix groaned, "Catch that pup with Bind. Use Rock Polish too as you're not fast enough to catch it."

"Balto keep up the on-slot!" Vali called out earning a bark from Balto, "We're almost there!"

Balto began working double time to avoid the now faster Onix and hit it with Iron Tail while avoiding its powerful tail. Even if his body wasn't as fragile as his teammates, Balto wouldn't be able to stand up to bind for long. Balto managed to avoid the tail and score a few good hits before he tripped on one of the stones from Onix's earlier Rock Throw leading to him being caught. Vali's heart beat quickened and her breath caught only for Balto to manage to break out of Bind with a well aimed Ember toward Onix's eyes which was one of the few vulnerable points on the rock snakes' body. Balto used the Onix's released grip to jump into the air before slamming down on Onix's weak spot with Iron tail which finally managed to knock the beast out. Balto let out a bark as the Referee called out, "W-Winner Challenger Valkyrie Potter."

"Balto," Balto raced towards Vali and she bent down to hug her pup though she made sure not to hug him too hard since he had just been captured in Onix's bind, "You did it. We won!"

Balto began licking her face earning a soft squeal from her and she immediately pulled away to avoid being covered in Growlithe drool. She scratched behind his ears and he leaned into her touch as Steven walked over, "Looks like you guys managed to win, it was a good battle."

"That it was," Flint agreed as he walked over after returning Onix, "You're the most interesting Rookie I've had so far this year. The others from Pallet were either too weak to beat me or barely managed it,"

"Thank you though it was all Balto and Smaug," Vali stood up while returning Balto knowing the pup could use the rest, "I even forgot about using our Smokescreen plan,"

"That happens sometimes," Flint handed the Boulder badge to her, "Here is the Boulder badge. Like I said to Mr. Stone, I hope you come back after your badge run and battle me again,"

"I might take you up on that offer," Vali took the badge feeling her heart race as relief ran through her.

Flint sent them out and Vali stared at the badge in her hand as she left the gym. Steven touched her arm and she looked at him, "How does it feel to have earned your first gym badge?"

"Amazing," She clenched it in her hand and surprised both of them by hugging Steven, "Thank you. If it weren't for your help, I doubt my team and I would've been able to do half as well if we even managed to win. Thank you, Steven,"

Steven relaxed and hugged her back, "It's no problem, but I seriously doubt you would've failed to get the badge even without my help."

Vali flushed and pulled away rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly, "Sorry, I'm just so happy."

"I understand," He smiled warmly at her, "Now let's head back to the pokemon center, you do have two pokemon that could really use Nurse Joy's help,"

"Right," Vali said and they started heading to the center.

She looked down at the badge in her hands and everything felt clear to her. She could do this whole journey thing and become a fire-type master. So long as she had her team by her side, they could do it especially if Steven helped them out.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997: Next chapter is here. I might end up updating twice a month if inspiration stays with me.**

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* * *

 **Word Count: 15,593**

* * *

Chapter Four

* * *

"Smaug use Dual Claw!" Vali called out.

It was their last day in Pewter and Vali wanted to give Smaug a bit more practice with his dual Metal Claws. Dual Claw was what they were calling the technique. It might not be the best name, but it was one they both agreed on. The Geodude that Smaug was battling let out a cry of pain before fainting. Smaug turned to her with a smirk and she grinned at him as the trainer they had been battling groaned, "Damn it."

"Nicely done, Smaug," Vali told Smaug making his smirk widen a bit.

She turned to their opponent as he walked over and held out the money she'd won, "Thanks for the battle. You two are really good."

"Thanks though Smaug did most of the work," Vali took the money, "Your Geodude was a lot quicker than we expected. I doubt we would've won if Smaug wasn't as fast as he is,"

The kid smiled, "I guess. Nice meeting you, Vali."

"You as well, Travis," Vali replied and he headed off to the pokemon center, "You really did a good job, Smaug," He trotted over as Balto barked in agreement, "We have a lot of work ahead of us though. Charging both Metal Claws at the same time takes too long, so we're going to have to speed it up," Smaug nodded and she bent down to rub his scaly head earning a small groan of pleasure from him, "Now, we should probably go to the pokemon center. Steven's probably waiting for us there,"

Smaug actually pouted at her when she stood up fully making her giggle softly. They headed to the pokemon center as she began looking down at Smaug again. He was getting stronger and actually growing a bit. He was still a bit away from his evolution, but she could see his scales starting to gain a reddish tint mostly around his tail and head. The softer scales of his stomach were also beginning to get the slight rosy color of a Charmeleon. That was about it since his claws were getting longer nor was he starting to gain the horn on the back of his head. She was somewhat glad if only because she would miss being able to carry him in her arms like she currently could.

Reaching the center, Vali found Steven waiting in the lobby, "Did you get what you needed?"

Vali nodded as she pulled out the extra dark grey scarf she'd picked up from the Poke Mart. Steven took it with a raised eyebrow and she said, "I wasn't sure if you had one and considering how often Smaug's going to be using Smokescreen in our battles, I figured you would probably need one."

"Thank you," Steven smiled lightly, "I will admit that I had forgone bringing one with me on this journey since I hadn't really needed one before, but I suppose having one is a good idea especially for when winter comes,"

"It's no problem," Vali had also picked up a new pair of black gloves and a league sanctioned flash light with more than enough batteries to get through Mount Moon, "I picked up a league sanctioned flash light and batteries that the clerk at the Poke Mart suggested when I said that we would be going through Mount Moon. While I do have a flashlight, it isn't one that should be used in caves like Mount Moon,"

Steven nodded with a pleased smile, "Good. I was hoping you would pick one up so we don't have to use my collapsible lanterns as often."

"So we'll stay here for tonight and be on our way tomorrow?" Vali asked earning a nod, "I'm going to be dropping off my pokemon for one last check,"

"It seems we're of the same mind though I also switched out Skarmory for one of my other pokemon who will do better in the caves," Steven told her earning a curious look, "I'll introduce you tomorrow. She doesn't enjoy being surrounded by people,"

"Duly noted," Vali wondered what type of pokemon she was.

Vali headed up to the front desk and Nurse Joy looked up from her book, "Hello, Vali. How can I help you?"

"I would like to have my pokemon looked over since we're leaving tomorrow," Vali said prompting Nurse Joy to take out a tray and she began putting her pokeballs into the spots on it after returning the fire type duo currently out, "I would also like to have Smaug and Pidgey checked to see how soon they'll evolve. Smaug's starting to get a bit of red scaling and he is getting a bit bigger, but that's about it. Pidgey is a bit larger than before,"

"I'll check though it will only be a rough estimate," Nurse Joy warned her earning a nod.

"I'm aware, but it would ease my mind," Vali replied as Nurse Joy picked up the tray.

"Balto and Pikachu should be ready to go in about thirty minutes since it'll be a basic health check," Nurse Joy said as a Chansey appeared with a rolling cart, "As for Smaug and Pidgey, it may take a few hours. I'll call you on the intercom when I'm finished,"

"Thank you," Vali told her before heading over to where Steven was waiting, "So what do you want to do?"

The dinning hall wouldn't be serving dinner for another two hours and Vali wasn't feeling hungry so she wouldn't have eaten if it had been serving dinner. Steven hummed lightly, "We should probably go watch the news."

* * *

Smaug would probably evolve within the month while Pidgey could evolve anywhere between next week to next month. Both of them would probably evolve faster if they battled frequently enough which suited Vali just fine, they would be battling as much as possible during the trip to and through Mount Moon. The Pidgey species as a whole didn't have many telling signs about their evolution until they started to gain their red crest, their dual colored tail feathers, and their large tail feathers began forming. While their increase in weight was a bit telling, they didn't get larger until they're on the cusp of evolution. At the very least, Pidgey had finally reached the proper weight for female Pidgey.

* * *

Steven and Vali left Pewter not long after dawn as both wanted to get to Mount Moon as soon as possible. Vali didn't mind getting up so early especially since she was getting a bit antsy staying in Pewter. According to Steven, it was something most trainers experienced during their journeys as they got used to traveling. She would admit that it was more than worth it as the country side was beautiful to look at. Balto, Smaug, and Pikachu spent time running around though they made sure to stay close enough to the two trainers so as to not lose sight of them. Pidgey flew above them and would be their warning system if either wild pokemon or trainers were nearby.

So far, they hadn't encountered any pokemon save for a few Rattata that merely darted away. Pidgey let out a harsh cry and dove down to land on Vali's shoulder as her other pokemon appeared. A pair of trainers, twin boys from the look of it, walked up the path. They both had blonde hair and tanned skin. The one on the right had brown eye and the one on the left had hazel. They paused before smiling and jogging up. The brown eyed one spoke up, "Hey, do you two want to battle?"

Steven looked at her curiously and she nodded since a battle would be a nice way to kick off this section of their trip. Steven turned back to them, "Sure. Are we double battling?"

"Yup!" The one with hazel eyes grinned, "Name Jake Champ and this is my brother John. We're from Cerulean city,"

"My name is Steven Stone and my friend here is Valkyrie Potter," Steven introduced as they moved off of the path towards a flat area, "I'm from Mossdeep City in Hoenn and she is from Pallet town,"

"Where you two headed?" John asked as they took off their bags, "We're heading to Pallet town to visit our cousins and spend some time at Professor Oak's Corral with our pokemon while we catch a few lectures,"

Vali had Pidgey settle on them to keep the wild pokemon that might try to steal them when the humans were distracted. Vali answered as she stood beside Steven, "Steven and I are heading to Mount Moon then Cerulean City. We're doing the badge run."

"Already got one badge?" Jake asked earning a nod, "Nice. Bit far from home though, Steven?"

"I figured that if I wanted to become a champion, I should probably get as much experience as possible," Steven replied earning grins from the two, "Terms?"

"How about a one per person since I have a feeling its the ladies first double battle?" John asked earning a nod from Vali, "And fifty from the losers?"

"That sounds fair though don't take it easy on me since its my first double battle," Vali said earning smirks.

They all sent out a pokemon with Vali choosing Smaug for the battle and Steven choosing Squirtle. John sent out a large looking Nidorino and Jake sent out an Meowth which was another pokemon that she hoped to one day add to her team. They had a decent move pool especially once they evolved into Persian especially when it came to TM's. Smaug growled narrowing his eyes at the Nidorino showing that he definitely remembered the male Nidoran from Viridian Forest. The Nidorino jerked back a bit at the animosity as did Meowth and the two trainers. John looked at her with a startled expression, "What's up with that Charmander?"

"On our way out of Viridian Forest about three weeks back, we came across a rather foul tempered male Nidoran," Vali explained as Smaug spat out a burst of flames a her other pokemon glared at the purple pokemon, "We managed to get away after knocking it out, but it managed to hit me with some of its Poison Sting needles. Smaug and my other pokemon are just a bit sore about it,"

"Understandable," John shook his head lightly, "Well, I suppose this means we'll have a good battle,"

Vali looked at Smaug and spoke, "Smaug," He turned his head, "Do your best, but don't take your frustration towards that Nidoran back in the forest on this Nidorino. They're two totally diffrent pokemon," Smaug let out a low grunt and turned back to glare at the Nidorino showing that while he'd heard her, he probably wasn't going to listen making her inwardly sigh, "Use Ember on that Nidorino, Smaug."

Smaug spat out the charcoal-like projectiles as the other three trainers gave out their own orders. He darted forward with his dual metal claws and managed to land a devastating hit on the poison-type earning a squeal of pain. He stumbled back a bit as his skin took on a purplish tint and he flinched earning a curse from her. It would seem that this Nidorino had the most common ability of the Nidoran line, Poison Point. Steven spoke as Vali grimaced, "Looks like we'll need to finish this up quick."

Vali nodded as she called out, "Smaug, we have a time-limit now. Be quick and make sure Squirtle doesn't make contact with Nidorino," Smaug grunt and bared his tiny fangs at the Nidorino that growled at him as its poisoned barbs extended, "Hit it hard."

Smaug nodded and began spitting out Embers as often as possible. She frowned as a plan began working through her mind as Steven gave Squirtle the order to withdraw when Meowth used fury swipes. She tugged on his sleeve as John shouted, "Nidorino use Fury Attack!"

"Steven," He looked at her, "If I have Smaug cover the field in Smokescreen, can you have Squirtle fire Bubble Beam into the smoke towards Meowth?"

Steven thought about it before nodding, "I can do that. We'll have to work on team maneuvers at some points just in case we run into more double battles," Steven turned back to the battlefield, "Squirtle get out of there now!"

Squirtle scrambled to do as Steven ordered and Vali called out, "Smaug, Cover it!"

Smaug grinned before spewing out clouds of smoke that quickly covered the field. As Jake and John cursed, Steven called out, "Squirtle, aim for where you last saw Meowth!"

Cries of pain echoed through the air as Smaug and Squirtle began their onslaught, John and Jake attempted to help their pokemon out. While it might have worked if it was another pokemon using Smokescreen, Smaug kept on supplying more. Smaug must have also been going after Meowth in an attempt to keep the scratch-cat pokemon from moving out of Squirtle's range if the numerous cries of pain from the cat pokemon meant anything since she doubted it wouldn't stand still if it were being pelted with water. Soon enough, Meowth fell silent, but Vali didn't have a chance to celebrate as Smaug let out a sharp cry of pain as Nidorino roared and the Charmander was sent flying out of the smoke. Smaug slowly got up only to wince as the purple aura of poison covered him for a few seconds. He was panting hard and Vali knew they needed to end this quick which made the fact they only had one opponent to deal with easier, "Smaug, use Ember towards where you last saw Nidorino."

"Squirtle, do your best to hit Nidorino," Steven ordered and their pokemon nodded.

Smaug started spitting Embers as Squirtle followed with Bubble Beam though they were at diffrent angles which would ensure that neither attack canceled the other out. It wasn't long until Nidorino began crying out in pain and randomly shooting off Poison Stings. Vali and Steven had to move out of the way until Steven released Metagross to cover surround the battlefield in a psychic shield. Soon enough, the battle was over and she was able to have Pidgey clear away the already dissipating smoke. Nidorino and Meowth laid unconscious not far from one another completely drenched with a few burn marks on each of them. Nidorino had quite a few deep scratch marks that were bleeding from Smaug's Dual Claw with Meowth having a few similar wounds though they were very few in number. John and Jack returned their pokemon as Smaug slowly stumbled his way over to her. Vali rubbed his head lightly earning a groan of pleasure, "You did a very good job, Smaug, especially when you helped Squirtle. It makes me really proud of you and I'm definitely giving you a few extra berries tonight."

He nuzzled into her hand as her other pokemon darted over to congratulate their teammate. John and Jack walked over with both taking out fifty poke-dollars. Vali stood up fully and took her side of the winnings as John said, "That Charmander of yours is pretty strong, I definitely didn't expect it to use Smokescreen."

"I honestly have no idea why most people don't use it since it's dead useful in a battle," Vali was going to turn it into the best strategy she could.

They shook hands and the twins left after vowing to find the traveling duo again for another battle. Steven and Vali stay to heal up their pokemon with Vali using a whole bottle of antidote on Smaug after pulling out the Poison Sting needles knowing that he needed it. Squirtle luckily only needed half a bottle since he'd only gotten hit by a few of the needles. Steven spoke as they finished fixing their pokemon up, "We should probably set up camp a bit early if only to allow Smaug and Squirtle a good rest tonight."

"Agreed," They were about three to four days away from the Mount Moon pokemon center.

* * *

Vali started having both Balto and Smaug try to learn how to use Fire Fang. The pokedex didn't really have much information, but she didn't let that bother her. She had both Smaug and Balto charge up an Ember before holding it in their mouths as long as possible. Squirtle was keeping an eye on them and putting out any fires that they accidentally started when the two released the Embers onto the ground. Sometimes they hit grass, they mostly managed to hit rock by aiming at the road in front of them. Steven had watched the practice in amusement since Vali had them increasing their jaw strength at night. Smaug was given one of the hard lava rock chunks that she'd bought from the Poke Mart while Balto was chewing on an Stantler horn which she'd gotten from the Poke Mart in Viridian City. Smaug didn't like it at first until he managed to scrape off a bit of dust from the rock chunk. Apparently, fire-type pokemon really loved lava rocks which actually made the whole lava cookies thing make more sense.

Steven was teaching Squirtle how to use Rapid Spin and Lileep Ancient Power. Lileep had an easier time if only due to Claydoll knowing it. He also introduced Vali to the pokemon that he'd swapped Skarmory with and found herself cooing at the pretty little pokemon. He had a Mawile and she was absolutely adorable.

* * *

Steven looked at Vali as she entertained their pokemon using a bit of magic. Moving her fingers like a Puppeteer, she molded the fire into some stick figures and began telling a story. At the current moment, she was telling the story of her first Quidditch match which earned wide eyes from the pokemon. He watched the show with a slight smile as he leaned back against Metagross. She truly was a good story teller once she became relaxed which he noticed was outside of populated places and surrounded by nature where pokemon could walk freely. Seeing her with Mawile showed him just what kind of person she was, Mawile never got close to any humans besides him and those she'd known for a while; And yet, she loved Vali not even thirty minutes after meeting her.

When the story finished, the younger pokemon began falling asleep and Vali got her sleeping bag ready. He spoke softly, "You're a good story teller."

Vali ducked her head lightly and her cheeks flushed which always happened when she was complimented, "I guess."

"Can I ask a question?" Vali looked at him curiously with her head tilted slightly to the right with Balto doing the same thing which made for a rather cute sight, "Do you prefer being away from cities?"

Vali blinked in surprise before nodding as she went back to get her sleeping bag ready, "Yeah. I mean at first it was a bit startling since I've never been anywhere that didn't have a lot of people, but I've grown to like it. It's quieter in many ways and the air smells better," She pointed up at the sky where the stars were coming out, "There's also the sky. Back during Hogwarts, my favorite class was Astronomy. Not only were we high up, but we got to look at the stars for over an hour. While they're diffrent here, they still have stories and stuff attached to them," Vali flushed lightly and dropped her hand, "I also like it out here because it lets me be away from a lot of people and be closer to pokemon. So to answer your question, yes," She offered him a sheepish smile as she rubbed the back of her neck, "I'm sorry if I kinda started rambling."

"It's fine," He assured her as they both got ready for bed, "It's a bit refreshing to be honest. Do you ever wish to go into space?"

Vali shook her head, "Nope. There isn't any air up there and it's supposed to be freezing cold, it doesn't sound like my kind of place."

Steven chuckled softly, "To each their own."

Silence fell over them for awhile and Steven wondered if Vali had fallen asleep only for her to speak up, "Hey, Steven. Can I ask you a question?"

"What's up?" He turned his head to look at her.

She looked at him from across the camp with her pokemon curled up around her, "Do you ever regret traveling with me?"

He didn't even need to think of the answer, "No. Traveling with you so far has been amazing and I doubt my travels would be quite so fun. Why?"

"Just wondering," Vali sleepily smiled at him, "I'm glad you're traveling with me, Steven,"

"Me too," Steven watched as her eyes closed and she fell asleep.

He wondered where that question had come from.

* * *

Vali's first look at Mount Moon in person left her a bit speechless at how large it was even from this distance. The terrain got progressively rockier, the grass started to thin out, and the trees almost totally disappeared. Soon enough, they reached the Mount Moon pokemon center which was the largest she'd seen yet though it made sense since Mount Moon was a tourist destination for Mountain Climbers, Scientists that wanted to study the mountain, and Rich people that had nothing better to do. It was the latter part of summer which meant there weren't as many people there allowing Vali and Steven to get rooms for a few days. They planned on finding a guide due to how easy it was to get lost within the Mountain even when using the League created pathways. While Steven was fairly experienced when it came to caves, he didn't want to chance either of them or their pokemon getting hurt because he didn't know the mountains.

The Nurse Joy here was a rather stiff lady that had dealt with too many rude people. They didn't bother her too long after dropping off their pokemon and getting their room keys. Finding a guide wasn't that hard, it was finding a good one among the bad ones that was difficult. Steven was being very picky which is a good thing even if no one seemed to reach his rather high standards. Considering the fact he'd be the one paying for their guide as Vali definitely didn't have the money for it, she was willing to let him go crazy when it came to getting their guide.

She used the extra time looking at maps for Mount Moons known sections, working with her pokemon, and looking up more information about the mountain. She also spent some extra money on some great balls since she really wanted to catch a Sandshrew. She felt close enough to her current team that adding another pokemon didn't feel wrong. She did take the time to get her pokemon's opinions on the matter and all four agreed that adding onto the team would be a good idea especially since it would given them someone that was strong against Poison types. As long as she didn't try to add a Nidoran or any of its evolutionary line, they didn't mind her adding onto the team.

Smaug was having a lot of trouble learning Fire Fang, but Balto was well on his way especially since he'd started using Bite while he held an Ember in his mouth. It was likely that Balto would learn the attack sooner than Smaug if only due to how often he uses his jaws. Balto was attempting to help the Charmander though there wasn't much the puppy pokemon could do at the moment since he didn't know how to use the attack yet. Pikachu was teaching Pidgey how to use Quick Attack when he wasn't trying to learn Thunder Wave. Once he did that, she would have him learn how to use Electro Ball.

* * *

Walking down the stairs on the day they were leaving, Vali was running a hand through her hair to help it dry with a small bit of magic. She yawned softly as Balto trotted beside her looking just as sleepy as her. Smaug, Pikachu, and Pidgey were all in their pokeballs since they didn't feel like getting up just yet. She reached the bottom floor with her room key in hand and turned it in to the sleepy looking Nurse Joy. She went to grab some breakfast and released her pokemon to let them get some grub. All of them ate a bit more than they usually did since it would be a while before they would be able to do so again. Even the shortest path in Mount Moon took a week and a half to get through, they were also going to be trying to catch Sandshrew which would only add on time not to mention Steven would probably want to get a good look at the rocks in there for when he finished his Kanto badge run and could spend time properly exploring the mountain.

Vali looked up from her second plate when she heard two pairs footsteps and found Steven walking up with a man dressed like a mountain climber. He had dark brown hair that was cropped close to his head, a scruffy looking beard, and beetle black eyes much like Hagrid. He was a portly fellow though he didn't compare to Vernon which helped to ease the anxiety that shot through her at the sight of him. She swallowed the bite of hash-browns she'd been chewing, "Good morning, Steven. Who's your friend?"

"Good morning, Vali," Steven offered her a light smile as he set down his own breakfast tray next to her while the mountain climber took a seat across from them, "This is Marko Grain, he'll be our guide,"

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Grain," Vali told the man relaxing a bit as Steven settled in the seat next to her and her pokemon crowded a little closer, "How long have you been a guide?"

"I've been a guide for around eight years and I've spent a majority of my life since gaining my trainers license," Marko explained earning a slow nod from Vali, "Please call me, Marko," He smiled lightly, "I have helped numerous people through the mountains and have rarely had any trouble. Luckily, you two are heading through during summer which is the best time other than early fall to go through the mountain,"

Vali had read as much, "So I suppose we'll be leaving after breakfast?"

"Yes," Steven nodded as she returned to eating, "We'll be taking one of the paths off the main one for a little while since we'll be attempting to catch some Sandshrew,"

"If I may ask," Vali looked at Marko, "Why do you want to catch Sandshrew?"

"They're a decent ground-type and one of my favorites of that typing," Vali didn't know why but this man unsettled her.

* * *

Entering Mount Moon, they began walking with Balto sticking to her side. Pidgey, Pikachu, and Smaug chose to stay in their pokeballs though she would be releasing Smaug once they got deeper into the tunnels. Marko spoke as they walked deeper into the mountain, "It'll take a day to reach the path we're heading for. We'll be able to follow it and end up back on the main path in about a week. After that, it won't take longer than another week to get through to the other end."

"So two weeks in a mountain?" Vali said earning a nod, "It can't be as bad as Viridian Forest,"

"Agreed though we'll have to be careful since there are many pokemon that call this place home and won't like us intruding on their territory," Steven said as they turned a corner and the light from the entrance to the mountain cut off almost completely.

The only light came from some League sanctioned lamps hung on the walls of the main path. The light was a slightly weak soft blue glow which wouldn't bother the wild pokemon while offering trainers the ability to see. The lights hung in a majority of the tunnels off the main path though there were some that didn't have them simply because the wild pokemon that called those tunnels and caves home didn't like the lights. Balto pressed against her knee creating a comforting warmth that eased the anxiety that suddenly kicked up as she remembered the last time she was in a place like this. Taking a deep breath, she listened to the sounds of the pokemon and felt the anxiety ease further though it didn't go away completely.

Steven caught her hand when she stumbled on a rock causing a nearby Geodude to growl in anger and glare at them though it didn't attack as Balto growled at it in return. He helped her regain her balance and she apologized, "Sorry."

"It's fine," Steven let go of her as Marko paused to look at them, "You seem a bit distracted,"

"Bad memories of the last time I was in a place like this," Vali admitted bending down to run her fingers over Balto's head, "So long as don't run into any gigantic poisonous snakes, I'll be fine,"

Steven looked at her in concern, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Vali would have to tell the story at some point.

Steven didn't look convinced, but seemed willing to let it slide. They began walking again with Steven sticking closer to her which she was a thankful for as it eased her anxiety to almost nothing. While there was no doubt in her mind that she'd eventually be comfortable in caves like these, she wasn't even close to that point at the moment. Sometimes, she really wished that she could see a therapist or something about stuff like this, but with the League keeping a majority of the information about who Sirius and her were under an intense amount of security, she kind of couldn't. Oh, the League has a few therapists that were high up and trusted enough to have access to that information, but only those that did extremely dangerous and traumatizing jobs for the League. As a ranger, Sirius was given access to those therapists and they were extremely good at their job which made sense since the League had them on the payroll. And after his therapy sessions, everyone in the know agreed on two things: Dementors were monsters that needed to be culled and Azkaban should have never been used as a prison.

Vali understood why the League didn't want much if any information about Sirius and her getting out there. People like Vernon and Petunia would probably be screaming for their deaths. Scientists without morals would be after them in an attempt to find out why they could do what they did. Evil people that would use them for their own gain without any concern for their safety. Scientists that would treat them like guinea pigs and attempt to breed them like a pokemon in order to have more examples of what they could do. And so many more, she didn't really want to think about it.

Some information about them had already found itself in public ears which was one of the reasons that the League had kept them in Pallet Town while conducting their investigations. People like Steven were trusted with the barest amount of information so long as they went through a psychic screening. Professor Oak had been allowed to give Steven a bit more information, but it was mostly up to her what he learned. Since Steven had proved to be someone that she felt could be trusted, she was somewhat free with her information especially since Metagross could protect the information as could Claydoll.

* * *

Quite a few swarms of Zubat with more than one Golbat leading the charge attempted to both them, but Balto, Mawile, and a Golem that Marko released were able to combat them. Walking into the dens of territorial pokemon no matter how docile they maybe is suicide without proper protection, it was generally considered a good idea to avoid doing so regardless as even a swarm of Zubat could kill a Dragonite if there were enough of them and they were pissed off enough. Those attacks, while slightly provoked due to their trespassing, convinced Vali to never get a Zubat. The slight headache she was getting from their constant use of echolocation and the fact that Balto seemed to be in quite a bit of pain ensured that she would probably never own one. Then again, the future was unknown to her and she might end up catching one even if she didn't want one now.

Balto stuck even closer to her after the last attack due to one rather fast Zubat almost managed to latch onto her and would have if it weren't for Metagross deciding to intervene. Metagross appearing had disorientated everyone, but they were thankful since the swarm of Zubat with three Golbat leading them had been the largest they'd encountered. Metagross had decided to stay out of their pokeball for now which none of them decided to argue against as the constant attacks by Zubat swarms was getting more than a little annoying. Balto occasionally stopped to sniff a particular rock as Steven did the same now that Metagross offered them a bit more protection. Vali spoke up, "Do you think the League is going to come in and get rid of some of those swarms?"

"They should be doing it soon since it is that time of year though I don't know where they would put them," Marko answered earning a curious look from Vali.

"Why do they do it during the summer?" Vali asked as they paused in a cave to eat lunch and get some rest, "Wouldn't it be better to do it around Spring?"

"Zubat mating season occurs towards the end of summer and the beginning of fall," Steven explained as he leaned back against Metagross, "Most cave born pokemon are born around this time. The only ones that aren't are those like Onix, but that's mostly because they spend all their lives underground save for the short time they spend above it or if they're captured. As far as I'm aware, they can breed at any time, but they do not do it often as they're a solitary breed and one that only matures after ten years,"

"Are you planning on getting an Onix at some point?" Vali asked earning light smile.

"I already have one," Steven told her earning a curious look, "She is currently back home with my father as she recently had her first clutch of eggs though there are only two. My father is attempting to find out if the rumor about shiny Onix not existing is true," He noticed that he had not only her attention but Marko's as well prompting him to explain, "According to the rumor, an Onix will take on the shade of whatever stone they're around while incubating and what stones they eat while growing up. My father isn't going to use any precious stones or metals. At the moment, he's using granite and white travertine. I'm interested in the results and my Onix only wishes to see her eggs hatch before she lets me evolve her as per the deal we made upon her capture,"

"Can Steelix not have children?" Vali hadn't really studied Onix and their evolved for much besides finding out the best ways to fight them.

Steven hummed softly, "I'm not exactly sure, but I think the females are much like Nidorina and become sterile upon their evolution."

"Though its not like they can really study it since Steelix are rare even with the invention of the Metal Coat," Marko added before taking a drink from his canteen, "It takes decades for an Onix to evolve in the wild and that's by going as far down in the earth as they can without accidentally eating an everstone. Wild Scizor are far rarer considering there's only ever been a single sighting in the last thirty years,"

Evolution items like Metal Coat, Electirizer, Magmarizer, Reaper Cloth, Protector, Sachet, and Whipped Dream were man-made items that made the rather rare and often times life-threatening dangerous evolution easier if not exactly common. Of those seven, the Sachet and Whipped Dream were the easiest of the items to obtain along with being the affordable. You wouldn't find either of those things outside of Kalos unless you were willing to spend an even larger amount of money importing it from Kalos along with whatever pokemon evolves them. To be honest, it was not only easier, but more cost effective to just go to Kalos and buy them. Metal Coat was the next easiest to buy though it was hellishly expensive. The last four? Forget it unless you're either part of the League or are willing to shell out hundreds of thousands of Poke-dollars. It was easier doing the suicidal options or hoping one of the gym leaders would take you on as a gym trainer which meant spending years working under said gym leader who might not actually give you one of them. The Reaper Cloth was the hardest to find and the only ones that actually seemed to have them were the Elite Four members and they never gave them out to anyone. You were better off risking your soul attempting to catch a Dusknoir or hope to hell your Dusclops somehow managed to achieve that evolution. As it was, Evolution for some species of pokemon was an impossible task unless you were either insanely lucky, bound to the League, or insanely rich.

Vali hoped that if and when she got a Magmar, it wouldn't want to evolve or was willing to wait until she could get a Magmarizer. If she caught one of those other ones? She would have to hope they were understanding. She definitely wasn't planning on trying to get an Onix or a Ryhorn at any point in time. Feeding them was hard even with their mainly mineral diet, she did not envy Steven when it came to feeding his team especially Aggron. She wasn't looking forward to how empty her wallet and bank account were going to be once she got her own Aron not to mention when her team fully evolved. Of all the things that had been stressed in her last months of schooling and by Professor Oak, the being careful with money and making sure you didn't spend all the poke-dollars you won on stupid things stuck the most. Vali would always make sure her pokemon had food and if she had any trouble, she would be willing to let them follow their inner natures.

* * *

Trying to sleep in a cave is a lot diffrent from sleeping outside, Vali quickly discovered that it was far colder at night inside of caves and that the Zubat were more than willing to tempt fate if it meant being able to drink from humans. It was also strangely quiet save for the Zubat and Golbat squeaks. She managed it after Steven had Claydol and Metagross watch over the cave they managed to find. She released everyone though Pidgey was quick to return to her pokeball after eating since being in caves was not something bird pokemon enjoyed. Steven avoided releasing Aggron or Lileep. Aggron was too large for their cave and Lileep wasn't something Steven wanted to reveal to their guide. As it currently stood, Vali ended up sleeping beside Steven due to how cold it was which was embarrassing despite her traveling partner not minding it.

When Vali woke up, it was to a slightly cold nose that didn't belong to any of her pokemon nudging her face. Forcing down how startled she was, she slowly opened her eyes and came face to face with a Sandshrew. It was smaller than any of the ones that Professor Oak had at the lab and its claws were far smaller than they should be not to mention dull while its eyes were a bright blue color rather than the dark almost blackish blue of its species. Its coloring was also a little off though she had a hard time telling due to the low lights in the cave. It reached out with one of its paws and gently poked her skin letting out a soft chittering sound. Slowly, she got up and the Sandshrew backed away a bit looking a little panicked. She began humming softly and it slowly moved closer. By the time everyone else had woken up, she was holding the Sandshrew that she was fairly sure was baby in her arms. Steven stared at her with an amused look, "Have an interesting morning?"

"Mhmm," Sandshrew squeaked softly and burrowed its face into her stomach, "Easy there, Little one. No one is going to hurt you. Steven's my friend,"

It took some coaxing, but Sandshrew allowed Steven to hold it though it soon decided that it liked her better. They all found it a bit odd that a Sandshrew, specifically a baby one, was here alone since the species was a denning one much like Raticate. Steven turned to Metagross and asked, "Can you see what's going on with this little one?"

Metagross made an odd humming sound and focused on Sandshrew for a few moments before speaking in their minds causing Marko to jerk, " _The Little Digger's Dame disappeared two days ago while its Sire was killed by a Sandslash a day after its birth in an attempt to take it's dame as a mate as well as kill the little one. It is the eldest of three kits with them disappearing as well once they got hungry enough to look for food on their own. It is currently a week old."_

Vali wasn't the only one to wince at that story especially since it's likely the mother of this baby was captured by a trainer. Either some other Sandshrew had decided to take the other two kits, a trainer captured them, or they were killed for food. She spoke to Steven, "Could you mash up one of my Oran Berries? I'm not sure if Sandshrew can eat solid foods after a week or not since Professor Oak never went over it."

Steven nodded and did as she asked using the mortar and pestle that she kept for when she grind up berries to add to her pokemon's food. When he handed the mortar to her, she stuck a finger into the mush and before bringing it to the Sandshrew's mouth. Sandshrew sniffed her finger curiously before licking away the mush covering her finger with a rough tongue. When it got everything, it whined at her and she let it eat from the mortar. It ended up eating two more mushed up Oran berries before becoming full and curling up in her lap for a nap. Steven asked her, "Are you going to catch it?"

Vali nodded not even having to think about it, "It doesn't have anyone else and it'll die if I don't. Besides, I wanted a Sandshrew even if this isn't how I wanted it to happen."

With that said, Vali took out a one of her great balls. It might be considered a waste by most people, but great balls were apparently far more comfortable than regular pokeballs according to various psychic-type pokemon. She had Balto explain it to Sandshrew once the little one woke up though she didn't think it really understood the concept. The little one tapped the release button with a claw and was sucked into the ball in a burst of crimson light. The ball shook a few times before a click sounded. She immediately released Sandshrew and hugged the scared little one. Sandshrew ended up playing a small game of returning into the ball and being released once it calmed down. Vali took out her Pokedex and scanned Sandshrew.

 _Sandshrew, the Mouse Pokemon._ _Sandshrew's body is configured to absorb water without waste, enabling it to survive in an arid desert. This Pokémon curls up to protect itself from its enemies. It has a very dry hide that is extremely tough. The Pokemon can roll into a ball that repels any attack. At night, it burrows into the desert sand to sleep. It lives in areas of limited rainfall. When danger approaches, it curls up into a ball to protect its soft stomach. It digs holes to catch Bug-type Pokémon. When its skin gets wrinkled from moisture, it heads for a volcano. It lies flat on a spot with a lot of geothermal heat and dries itself out._

 _This Sandshrew is female and has the ability Sand Veil. This Sandshrew knows the moves Defense Curl, Scratch, and Night Slash._

 _Warning: Shiny._

Vali gaped at her pokedex as Steven stared at Sandshrew alongside Marko. Holy mother of Mew, she had just caught an Arceus be damned shiny pokemon. Shiny pokemon were up their with King sized pokemon when it came to how rare they were. The fact that she had not only unknowingly found one, a young one it maybe, but also caught one was startling. Steven promptly shook his head with a soft laugh, "I suppose that makes two of us with a shiny pokemon."

"Huh?" Vali looked up at him as Sandshrew played with her fingers.

"I have another Metagross that I raised as my partner before this one," Steven patted his pokemon's side, "They're currently back home as I wished to train this one a bit more alongside my other pokemon. I'll have to introduce you one day,"

Vali smiled lightly, "I would love to meet them at some point," She looked back down at Sandshrew, "I'm definitely going to need to contact Professor Oak when we get to Cerulean if only to ask him for advice on what to do with Sandshrew. I've never done more than play with baby pokemon and most of the time, they were fire-types."

"I think she should be fine with us mashing up berries until then," Steven said earning a nod from her, "While I've raised a few baby pokemon, it has been a few years,"

Vali set Sandshrew down and got up, "Well, we should start moving soon. We do have at least a week and a half of traveling through this place to do."

* * *

Sandshrew stuck to Vali's side like glue as they walked showing that despite her curiosity, she was as timid as the rest of her species. Vali didn't mind in the least as it allowed her to bond with her newest pokemon and allow Sandshrew to get to know Balto as well. Once her pokemon realized that it was a hungry baby pokemon that had wandered into their campsite, they had become fairly welcoming to the baby pokemon. Even Pikachu, her most cautious pokemon had warmed up to Sandshrew and seemed to like the little one a lot.

When they stopped for lunch, Steven broached a subject that Vali hadn't even thought about, "Are you going to give her a nickname as well?"

Humming, Vali turned to the little one currently enjoying some mashed up mashed up Oran and Razz berries. She thought about some names, "I think I'll offer her the chance to have a name once she's a little bit older. I doubt she'll understand the concept at the moment."

"You should probably keep a close eye on that Sandshrew of yours," Marko advised as they ate their lunch, "There are people out there that would try to steal her,"

"I know," Vali was going to need to talk to Professor Oak about the precautions she could take, "My Godfather is a pokemon ranger after all,"

Marko looked a bit surprised, "Really?"

"Mhmm," She wondered where Sirius was right about now, "I'm not sure where he is right now though, but there is a chance he might be coming around Mount Moon at some point. The Rangers are one of the main people that the League send out to relocate pokemon,"

Vali was torn between wanting to see Sirius and dreading it since he probably already knew about her little encounter with that male Nidoran. She hoped that he would beg her to go home since things like that were going to happen over the course of her journey same with that dead boy in Viridian Forest. She pushed those thoughts away as Steven commented, "I would be nice to see them in action. The Ranger Union has an interesting way of doing their jobs."

"That they do," Vali remembered Sirius complaining about how diffrent his capture styler was to his wand back when he first started training to become a ranger, "They have to train hard to use those stylers. Sirius let me try it once and I ended up making one of the Rhyhorn a trainer decided to catch pissed off instead of willing to listen to me," She pulled up the sleeve of her right arm and revealed the faint slash marks, "I got these as a present birthday present and Sirius ended up sulking for months,"

"You're not scared of Rhyhorn, are you?" Marko asked eyeing the fain scars.

Vali shook her head, "Nah, it was my fault for not trying it on a Pidgey or something. I'm just never ever going to attempt to become a pokemon Ranger," She looked at Sandshrew who sniffed at the scars curiously and began rubbing her face against Vali's arm, "They don't even hurt anymore. I'm very lucky I only got a flesh wound rather than a broken arm."

Or die. Yeah, she respected anyone that could train a Rhyhorn or any pokemon from that species especially those that raced them. It couldn't be easy even if they were rather dumb compared to other pokemon species. Speaking of that Rhyhorn, she dimly remembered it being sent to the League since its trainer never bothered to check on it in over six months. She wondered if Flint had it or someone else before deciding that it didn't matter so long as it ended up with a good trainer.

* * *

Steven jolted awake as he heard a low whimper and immediately began looking around only to find that the camp hadn't been infiltrated by any wild pokemon. Instead of trying to go back to sleep, he checked on everyone. Claydol and Metagross were standing by with Metagross sleeping at the moment. Mawile was curled up on his left side sleeping peacefully. Marko was asleep as was his Golem. Smaug and Pikachu were sleeping. Balto and Sandshrew were wide awake staring at Vali. Immediatly, he looked at his traveling companion as another soft whimper sounded and saw her pale face.

She was crying too and looked scared. Balto let out a whine as Sandshrew made a soft sound that he couldn't quite detect. Slipping from his sleeping bag, he moved the two feet it took to reach Vali and bent down. She let out another whimper and he froze slightly as he heard, "G-Ginny. Wake up, Ginny. You need to wake up."

As gently as he could, Steven shook her awake murmuring, "Wake up, Vali."

Vali jerked awake like she'd been shocked by one of Pikachu's Thunder Shock attacks and looked around wildly like she was waiting to be attacked only to relax when she realized that there wasn't any dangers. She looked at him and flinched, "St-"

"You had a nightmare," Steven settled down as she nodded slowly, "I suppose it involves that gigantic poisonous snake comment you made on our first day here?"

"Y-yeah," Vali looked down at her hands, "I'm sorry for waking you. I'm normally really quiet when I have nightmares if they do pop up,"

Steven wondered how many nightmares she'd had while they were traveling together, "Do you have them often?"

Vali shook her head looking a little less pale, "No. I used to get them a lot after Sirius and I came to Kanto, but it's gotten better over the years. I honestly don't know what caused me to have one..."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Steven asked her.

Vali looked like she honestly wanted to, but ended up shaking her head, "N-not right now."

Despite really wanting to know, Steven forced back that urge and offered her a warm smile, "We still have at least another few hours before we need to be up. How about you sleep next to me?"

Vali was a little hesitant, but eventually agreed to it. Soon enough, she was asleep along with Balto and Sandshrew against his right side. He peered down at her as he decided to keep a better eye on her. She shouldn't have to deal with this stuff alone when he could offer her some form of help even if it wasn't much. He inwardly sighed and decided to get some rest as Claydol spoke in his mind, " _Master, do you wish for us to alert you if Friend Vali has any nightmares?"_

 _"Yes,"_ Steven closed his eyes as he moved to get comfortable.

As he slowly fell asleep, he realized that it was nice sleeping with someone beside him other than his pokemon.

* * *

Vali was a little embarrassed in the morning, but managed to push it back. Steven had been nice enough to offer and she fell asleep far faster than she normally would have after a nightmare especially when it dealt with the chamber of secrets. The dream also brought up something that she hadn't really thought of in awhile. Could she still talk to snakes? Would she be able to talk to snake-like pokemon? She was kind of hoping it was possible though she did wonder why she hadn't been able to understand any of the ones at Professor Oak's lab. Maybe she needed to concentrate? Well, it was a thought for later.

* * *

Steven ended up finding a Sandshrew that he liked not to mention one that didn't share the timid nature the rest of its species had. Surprisingly, the pokeball didn't disappear like she'd been told it would when a trainer reached six pokemon which prompted Steven to explain something that she wouldn't have learned until she either got into the top four of a League Conference or became an ACE trainer. Trainers of that level were shown to be responsible enough to have more than the regular six carry limit. Of course, you had to work up to getting more slots to your carry limit, but as soon as you reached that level, you were allowed to carry two more pokemon. Exceptions were made like when you had an egg hatch after getting a full team of six, you had to speak with your regional Professor and the limit was reinforced after around two months.

Steven's Sandshrew was bigger than usual, but it wasn't a King. From what Vali knew, which wasn't as much as she probably could know, places like Mount Moon likely had a small handful of King pokemon, but they were probably somewhere deeper down in the Mountain where they wouldn't be bothered. Some pokemon species, like Onix, were incapable of having the King gene due to the fact they never stopped growing. Pokemon do stop growing after they get past their prime save for those special few species that never stopped growing or those incapable of growing like Magnemite. She wasn't sure if Sandshrew was one of those capable of having the King gene or not. It would be something to ask the Regional Pokemon Professors as the ones that study this phenomenon are hermits that rarely leave the wilds unless its to pass on their research near the end of their lives.

* * *

They had almost made it out of Mount Moon when they encountered a Pokemon Ranger. Said Ranger recognized Vali almost immediately due to the trips that Sirius took her on to the union headquarters after he became a ranger, she pounced on the girl with a grin, "Vali! How's my favorite brat?"

"Stella," Vali was glad that Sandshrew was in her pokeball taking a nap otherwise she had no doubt her little one would be running away from the boisterous blonde, "I take it you're here to relocate some of the Zubat?"

"About half of them," Stella let her go with a pout when Vali didn't hug her back, "You're so mean to me,"

"You surprised me and I don't really give hugs," Physical affection wasn't something Vali was good at unless it came to those younger than her like Ash.

Stella shook her head with a sigh, "Honestly," The pink eyed woman turned to Steven and Marko, "And who are these fine gentlemen?"

"Steven Stone, my traveling partner," Vali gestured to Steven, "And Marko Grain, our guide through Mount Moon,"

"Steven Stone, the one who placed third in Hoenn's most recent season and the person that Sirius has been whining about?" Stella asked earning a nod from her, "Nice to meet you, Steven!" Stella beamed at him, "Anyone that can annoy that old dog is a good man in my book,"

Stella's partner, a Minun, darted up to Vali and began to nuzzle her after greeting Balto. Vali bent down and picked up the little pokemon, "Hello, Minun. Having trouble keeping up with your partner?"

Minun nodded with an eye roll earning a glare from his partner, "Hey! I am not that bad."

Vali giggled as the two got into a glaring match that ended with Minun shocking Stella. Steven said, "I suppose that answers the question about you knowing her."

"She's Stella. One of the pokemon rangers that work on my godfather's team most of the time," Vali informed the two before clearing her throat making Minun and Stella freeze, "I don't suppose it would be too much to ask for you to take us to base camp? I want to see Sirius and everyone else not to mention I heard Regulus evolved. I really want to see him,"

* * *

Vali, Steven, and Marko were greeted rather cheerfully by the group of Rangers though none tried pouncing on her. Sirius and a few others were currently checking various tunnels to see how many Zubat they'd have to relocate. Instead of leaving, the three decided to take a break in the Ranger's camp which sat in one gigantic cave that was only half a days walk to the exit of Mount Moon. Vali introduced her pokemon team and Stella tried to steal Sandshrew only to end up shocked by a protective Pikachu. Sandshrew didn't like the rather large amount of people and she took pity on her little one by returning her until it was time to eat. She spent time catching up with everyone who had all heard about her encounter with the foul tempered male Nidoran. Many offered Steven and her sympathetic looks since Viridian Forest was not a fun area to get through when the pokemon decided to be extra territorial.

One of the Ranger, a man by the name of Rick that had an Venomoth as a partner, asked, "Were you the two that found that kid?"

"Yeah," Vali's stomach turned at the reminder of the dead kid.

"Shame that you had to see something like that so soon, Kid," Rick shook his head lightly, "Our world isn't the safe place that the idealistic idiots say it is in those snob schools,"

"I know," Vali hugged Pikachu who tolerated the embrace knowing that she needed some form of physical contact, "Did anyone ever find out what killed him?"

"Not really. By the time anyone arrived to find the body, it was almost completely bone with some of the bones missing," Rick wasn't one to mince words as he was a fan of bluntness, "It's likely that he died due to both over exposure to the elements and being attacked by those Raticate,"

Stella smacked him upside the head, "That's enough Rick."

Rick grumbled and rubbed his head lightly though he made no other comments.

* * *

Sirius' arrival was signaled by a black blur deciding to slam into Vali, knock the air from her lungs, and give her a hell-hound tongue bath. It took a few minutes to get Regulus off of her before she was able to hug him properly. Regulus absorbed the attention with a happy groan and a wagging tail before moving back to let her get a good look at his evolved form. He was about the regular size of a Houndoom if maybe a few inches bigger, but other than that he looked fairly normal save for one specific thing. One of his horns was cracked and missing an inch off of the tip. When Sirius entered, she didn't greet him happily, but rather angerly, "Sirius Orion Black, what the hell did you do to Regulus' horns?!"

Sirius let out a yelp and looked sheepish as he said, "It was an accident?"

Vali glared at him making Sirius back away a bit and the various Ranger snicker at him. Eventually, she calmed down and Sirius was able to tell her the story while she was pampering his partner. Apparently, they had been relocating some Rhyhorn and one ended up evolving into a Rhydon which surprised everyone. The Rhydon managed to knock Regulus around along with a few other pokemon before the Drill Pokemon was subdued. Luckily, Houndoom horns could repair themselves so long as they weren't knocked loose. It would just take a year or two before Regulus' horns repaired fully. Vali rubbed around the base of Regulus' new horns and said, "At the very least, they'll repair themselves in a year or two. That actually reminds me," She pointed at Sirius as she remembered something, "You owe me a Houndour egg. I beat Flint with two fire-types."

Sirius gaped at her, "Seriously?"

"The video's on my trainer page," She'd checked it before they'd left the Mount Moon pokemon center, "So you owe me a Houndour egg,"

"Yeah, yeah," Sirius sighed deeply, "At least one of us is going to get something, eh Regy?"

Regulus offered his partner a 'And I should care why' look. Vali giggled softly as Steven asked, "You really bet on that?"

"Yup! It was while I was talking to Sirius before he left for the Ranger Union to get his next job," Vali answered and couldn't wait until she got said egg, "If I didn't, Sirius wouldn't have to give me a Houndour egg until my next birthday,"

"You're going to have to wait until Fall since that's when the Houndoom mating season is," Sirius said earning a shrug from her.

Vali didn't really care so long as she got one. Houndour were adorable pokemon and one of her favorites. Then again, almost all of her absolute favorite pokemon were fire-types. Why didn't she notice how fire-type oriented she was before? Pushing those thoughts to the side, she decided to enjoy her time with Sirius since they probably wouldn't be seeing one another for a couple of months if not longer.

* * *

Hugging Sirius, Vali said, "I'll see you in a couple of months at Christmas, right?"

"Yeah," Sirius hugged her tightly, "Be careful. I may not exactly like you traveling with Steven, but I'll admit he's not the worst option and it has eased some of my anxiety,"

"You too," Vali looked at him sternly, "I wouldn't be the only one worried about you if something happened,"

Sirius let out a laugh and pulled away reaching out in an attempt to tousle her hair. Vali side stepped the action with an eye roll and Sirius let out a soft laugh, "I'll see you, Pup."

"See you, Siri," Vali moved to join Steven and Mark.

"Well, that went better than I expected," Steven commented earning a laugh from Vali, "I honestly expected him to try and prank me in revenge for not keeping you safe from that male Nidoran,"

"He knows that I would do something worse in retaliation," Vali might not be a full on prankster like Sirius, but that didn't mean she didn't know how to prank someone, "He's already on thin ice for not keeping a better eye on Regulus," As they got closer to the exit of the cave, she turned back and shouted, "Siri, I better be hearing about you proposing to Delia soon! I want Ash as my official little brother!"

Vali giggled as Sirius shouted in denial about his attraction to Delia amidst the laughter of his fellow Rangers. Steven shook his head in amusement while Marko stared at her with a raised eyebrow. Seeing Sirius had done wonders for her anxiety on top of her getting used to being in a cave, she doubted that it would take more than maybe six more trips through caves and mountains to get over her anxiety to the point it didn't bother her. She spoke as they headed straight towards the exit which they should reach in a matter of hours though they'd probably be camping outside which would be a nice change, "I cannot wait to reach Cerulean. I don't know about you two, but I could use a shower."

Steven nodded in agreement while Marko commented, "I'm surprised you haven't complained about that before."

"I've gone longer without a shower," Yeah the Dursley rarely allowed her to take a shower save for once a month if she wasn't going to school, "I kind of hope there will be a river or something on the way to Cerulean. It would be nice to have some somewhat clean clothes,"

* * *

It was close to sunset when they exited the cave and that meant they had to hurry up to make camp. Now that they were in the sunlight, Vali could see Sandshrew's shiny coloring. The green was fairly light due to the pokemon's young age, but soon it would deepen into a rather nice emerald green. Sandshrew still stuck close to her, but looked almost afraid of the landscape. It was absolutely adorable and she ended up taking a few pictures with her scarcely used camera. Once she got over the adorable sight, she went hunting for a water source which ended up being a small creek. After filling up the canteens, she headed back to camp where Steven was waiting with Marko setting up the tents and getting the fire pit ready.

Steven looked up as she set the metal canteens on one of the clean stones and asked, "Find something?"

"A creek. We can wash some of our clothes and get somewhat cleaned up," It would take a long shower for Vali to feel truly clean, "Balto can find it again though we'll have to wait until morning since I did see a few signs of Ekans in the area,"

Ekans always left traces of poison in places they frequented to prevent rivals from taking over their spots. It was easy to spot either by the purple marks on the rocks, the sick grass, or the fang marks in the trees. They usually had a territory of around three miles with their burrow in the center. It was actually easy to find the burrows only it was recommended to wait until winter when the snakes would be hibernating. They were very territorial when it came to their burrows and would kill anything that tried to come close. You could actually tell how close to an Ekans burrow you were by how violently they battled and how strongly their poison effected whatever it hit.

Steven nodded as he released Aggron earning a surprised look from Marko, "I suppose it would be a good idea to have Aggron guard the camp. Wild Ekans are mostly active at night unless they're close to evolving."

"Balto," Vali said gaining the puppy pokemon's attention, "Super heat those, but do not melt the metal,"

While the metal canteens could stand up to a flame-thrower, it was best to have caution when it came to having fire-types heat things especially when they weren't fully evolved pokemon. While Balto was an older pokemon that had more control than Smaug when it came to his inner flame, he did have trouble sometimes especially when his inner flame grew more powerful. She hoped that by the time Balto evolved, he could produce blue flames which were the hottest flames any pokemon outside of those with the Flame Body ability could produce. Balto let out a bark and used ember on the rock the canteens sat on. It would take about five to ten minutes for the water to be purified by the heat. Moving towards the fire pit that Claydol had dug out, she began putting together what would be their fire for the night once it got dark enough to light one.

* * *

After it got dark and they'd trained for the night, the group began eating and Marko asked, "What exactly are you two planning on doing?"

"I'm completing the Kanto badge run and am going to compete in the Indigo Plateau Conference," Steven answered earning a nod from Vali since she planned to do the same, "I'm also planning on exploring the mountains here once I get all my badges,"

"I think that I'll be going home for awhile once I get all my badges both to give all my pokemon time to relax and spend time with my family," She said after taking a bite of her trainer meal, "If I can, I might spend some time studying under Blaine to get a better grasp of my fire-types. I do want to become a fire-type master at some point maybe even become a member of the elite four,"

"Maybe when I become champion, you'll become one of mine," Steven said earning a shrug.

"Maybe though I don't think we're allowed to be a member of the elite four if you came from another region," Vali said as she thought over what she knew about the elite four, "Mostly because of the whole not becoming conflicted if there's a war or something," She shook her head, "If I could, that would be kind of cool," She looked at Marko, "So what's going to happen now that we're through Mount Moon?"

"I'll be heading back through the mountain as I've got all my supplies," Marko answered earning a nod from Vali, "As soon as Steven pays me of course,"

"In the morning," Steven decided as he looked at the sky, "It's far too dark right now,"

With that in mind, everyone continued to eat dinner before settling down for the night.

* * *

After parting from Marko, Steven and Vali packed up their camp before following Balto to the creek she'd found last night. It didn't take long to get some of their clothes cleaned up and clean them selves up a little. The water wasn't too cold, but it was still colder than Vali would like. Then they were off again following Steven's pokenav's GPS which increased her wish to own one at some point, it would take two days to get to Cerulean City though neither of them minded. She was glad for the sun as were her pokemon though Sandshrew didn't exactly like it a lot. Given how she'd only lived in constant darkness save for the League lights, it was understandable that she would prefer darkness though eventually, she would get used to the light.

They did end up battling a few trainers and some wild pokemon though Vali didn't see any Ekans. While she may not mind, she had been hoping that she might be able to test her theory. Eventually though, they made it to Cerulean which was larger than Pewter though smaller than Viridian city. It sat on the banks of a large bay that eventually met the ocean through a bunch of rivers in various directions. The buildings were mostly white with a blue or sea green trim. The biggest thing in the city was a humongous open air market that took up the center of the city and she planned to visit it as soon as she could. The Pokemon Center, the Poke-Mart, and the Cerulean city Gym were fairly close to one another which was fairly convenient. Of the four pokemon Center's she'd been to so far, it was the second largest right behind Mount Moon's.

Walking into the center, Vali noted the differences between the ones' she'd been to before. The front desk was larger and had a notice board beside it boasting various activities within the city. There were signs to various parts of the center, she noted that this center had a game/entertainment room much like Mount Moon. It was the first one to have indoor training facilities. A huge fish tank took up almost an entire wall and was filled with fish. For the first time since coming to this world, she was able to see some form of animal that wasn't a pokemon. Shaking her head and deciding to ask questions later, she walked up to the front desk with Steven though they had to wait in a small line before reaching the desk. Steven looked at her curiously, "Something wrong?"

"I just noticed that the fish tank had something other than a pokemon in it," Vali said prompting Steven look look at it as well, "While I know there are some animals that existed in this place, I've never really seen any since we got here,"

Vali was glad that there weren't any mosquitoes, but guessed that they'd probably gotten eaten by pokemon before they could really get their population growing. Of course, they could exist in other regions which meant she'd probably have to find bug spray of some kind or figure out some type of ward she could cast to keep them from biting her. Inwardly shaking her head, she focused on Steven as he said, "You'll mostly find fish though I'm sure there are others. I haven't really thought about it since pokemon are more interesting."

"They are," Vali actually preferred pokemon to regular animals since they were more intelligent for the most part.

The trainer in front of them moved forward and they stepped forward only to do so again moments later. It only took about five minutes to reach the front desk and Nurse Joy offered them a warm smile, "How can I help you two?"

"We need our pokemon checked as we've just finished getting through Mount Moon a few days ago," Steven answered prompting Nurse Joy to take out two trays, "Our Sandshrew are newly caught with Vali's being fairly young,"

"I would like to have a deep check on her just to make sure she's healthy," Vali added earning a nod from Nurse Joy, "She's also a little bit special,"

Nurse Joy looked at her curiously and Vali handed over her pokedex. Nurse Joy synced it into the computer and did something before making an understanding sound, "I see."

"Other than that, we could both use a room," Steven said earning a nod.

As Nurse Joy got their room keys, Steven and Vali placed their pokeballs onto the tray. All their pokemon were tired so neither of them had anyone out and Vali had already had her older pokemon explain what was going to happen to Sandshrew. She was still probably going to have to comfort her little one, but she didn't mind it since she'd been wanting to get her checked out as soon as possible. Nurse Joy handed them their room keys and took the trays saying, "It shouldn't take more than an hour for most of your pokemon. Vali, your Sandshrew should be finished in around three to four hours. Would you like me to get her shots in order?"

"Yes, please," Oh yes, Sandshrew was not going to be a happy little one.

"Of course, if you would give me the required five hundred poke-dollars please," Nurse Joy held out her hand and Vali took out her wallet.

At the very least, she didn't have any large pokemon which would probably make the cost skyrocket. Handing over the money, Vali earned a smile from Nurse Joy who returned her pokedex before they headed to the stairs. Steven smiled lightly, "I suppose we should meet up in the cafeteria for lunch in two hours?"

"Sure," Vali would need to get her clothes cleaned up first before she could shower, "See you in two hours,"

Entering into her room, she headed over to the closet and opened it to find the college-style washer and dryer. Vali began the arduous task of cleaning her clothes. Given that she had two full weeks worth of clothes that needed washing, it was going to take a while even if she wasn't washing everything right now. She was also glad that she wasn't developed enough to need more than training bras not to mention didn't have to deal with mother nature just yet. Traveling when she got older was going to suck if she didn't get some of those storage devices, she would need to make a lot of money in order to buy one though. Thank Arceus for gym battles, traveling trainers, odd jobs that trainers could take, contests, tournaments, and so many other activities.

* * *

After cleaning her clothes and taking a very long shower, Vali felt human for the first time since she'd run out of clean clothes back at Mount Moon. She headed downstairs and saw that she still had thirty minutes before she was to meet up with Steven. Heading to the Video-phone area, she went to one of the open booths and got onto the computer. Putting in her pokedex in the slot meant she didn't have to actually pay to use it, she plugged in the Ketchum/Potter/Black residents and only had to wait a few seconds before it was answered, "Hello-Vali!"

"Hey, Brat," Vali greeted her adoptive brother, "Stayed home today?"

"It's the weekend, Vali," Vali blinked in surprise at that, "It's Saturday. Didn't you know that?"

"Lost track of time," It really was hard to keep track of the days inside of a mountain even with Steven's Pokenav and her own Pokedex, "I wanted to call and check in. I'm in Cerulean City,"

"Did you get to see Sirius at Mount Moon?" Ash asked making her smile and nod, "Regulus evolved and looks so cool now!"

Vali laughed lightly and chatted with Ash for a few minutes about how things were going back in Pallet Town. She shook her head at the stories of what he and Gary had been getting up to. Eventually, Delia appeared and sent Ash off to go finish his chores. They shared a laugh at his complaints before Delia asked, "How are you?"

"Pretty good since I just took a long shower and got some of my clothes cleaned," Vali smiled lightly at her, "How about you? I know Ash is fine,"

"I'm doing very good. The restaurant is doing well and I've been getting to spend a lot of time with Ash since he's been putting in a lot of time at Samuel's place," Delia answered with a soft smile, "Did Ash tell you what he got up to lately with Gary? Those two boys..."

"Well, you can't blame since they're young boys and are planning on becoming trainers. Let them learn some stuff now instead of later when it can get them hurt," Vali said earning a sigh from Delia.

Delia shook her head lightly, "You're starting to sound like Sirius, Samuel, and Spencer," Vali flushed lightly at that, "I suppose you're right if all four of you said that though it won't make me worry less."

"At the very least, you're there to make sure they're okay and taken care of. I mean I'll be watching over Ash when he becomes a trainer, but I'm still going to be letting him learn things on his own," She was mostly going to be keeping him from getting himself killed.

Delia's smile returned, "And that makes me so glad."

Vali ran a hand through her hair as she asked, "How is Eevee?"

"He's doing well and will let me touch him though that's about it," Delia's smile dropped away, "It's a good thing I did go through those course on pokemon care or he might be in trouble since he doesn't really like anyone but Professor Oak and I touching him. He'll attack anyone else that tries though he is less violent with the female aids,"

Vali winced at that, "It's understandable though. The group I found abusing him were all male."

Vali's stomach rumbled and Delia let out a laugh, "I suppose that means it's lunch time for you."

"Yeah. I'm sorry we haven't talked for long," Vali said sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her neck, "I'll try to call at some point while we're still in Cerulean though I'll make sure to call sometime before we leave,"

"It's okay, Vali. I'm just glad we got to talk and I'm looking forward to hearing about your journey so far," Delia beamed at her.

The phone disconnected and Vali got her pokedex from the slot. She headed towards the cafeteria where Steven was waiting by the doors. He looked up from his Pokenav and asked, "Called home?"

"Yup. I still need to call Professor Oak, but that can wait until after lunch," Vali said earning a laugh from Steven, "Shall we go eat?"

* * *

Sandshrew immediately curled up in Vali's arms the moment she could and refused to be moved. Nurse Joy offered Vali a sheepish look, "Sorry about that."

"It's fine," Vali sat down in the chair Nurse Joy offered her and began rubbing Sandshrew's dry head trying to calm her down, "She's still young and I actually expected something like this when I gave you the all clear for her shots. Since this is her first time out of Mount Moon not even three weeks since she hatched, I can't expect her to react any differently especially since Sandshrew are naturally timid pokemon,"

Nurse Joy sat down at her desk and opened the file that sat there, "Now she has had her shots and I took the liberty to give her a few calcium boosts since I'm sure she hasn't been able to get any milk since her dame disappeared."

"Thank you," Vali felt Sandshrew start relaxing, "So what did you find during the exam?"

"She is under weight though not by much due to you feeding her that berry mush," Nurse Joy said making Vali relieved, "I'm going to suggest adding a few things to it for the next week or so. I'll give you a list," Vali nodded, "She'll need a few supplements added to her food and I'll be prescribing them to you. You can pick up the prescription up at the Poke-Mart at any time though I recommend you do it soon," Nurse Joy looked down at the file, "She'll naturally sharpen her claws when she starts digging which she should do in at any time. Do your best to keep her away from the water, at her age, it will be detrimental to her health,"

Vali nodded, "Is there anyway to clean her up?"

"The Poke-Mart carries pokemon grooming kits. The basic one is about a thousand poke-dollars, but it's good for just about any pokemon," And her wallet was going to be suffering, wasn't it? "Other than what I've already said, she's fairly healthy. She should be able to start light training in about three weeks and start battling a week after that,"

"Noted. Thank you, Nurse Joy," Vali told the woman earning a smile.

"No problem, Vali. It is my job after all," Nurse Joy stood up and Vali did too after returning a sleeping Sandshrew, "I should have the list and prescription ready in thirty minutes,"

Vali headed to the front desk and over to the TV area where Steven was watching the news. He looked up as she approached, "How's Sandshrew?"

"A bit underweight and needs some supplements added to her food, but other than that she's very healthy," Vali sat down next to him, "I'll be going to the Poke-Mart to pick up her prescription once Nurse Joy is done," Vali leaned back against the couch glad that she'd gotten her pokemon's check ups done, "Smaug is going to evolve within the week. He just needs that final push while Pidgey is getting there. Pikachu and Balto are perfectly healthy though one of Balto's teeth are going to be falling out soon and being replaced which means he's going to be a bit irritable for a little while,"

"Well, it does happen," Pokemon were like sharks some times when it came to their teeth.

"I'm going to be picking up a basic pokemon grooming kit while I'm at the Poke-Mart," Steven looked a bit confused, "Sandshrew can't take baths and since she's going to start digging soon, I need to clean her up. Nurse Joy suggested the grooming kit which is actually something I've been meaning to get,"

"I think I'll pick up one as well since my pokemon do deserve it for all the hard work they've been doing," Steven commented looking at his pokeballs.

* * *

After getting everything she needed and restocking some of her stuff, Vali went back to the video-phone area. Instead of getting a public booths like before, she got one of the two private ones and closed the door behind her. Vali put her pokedex in the slot before dialing Professor Oak's lab. She ended up having to do this twice before one of the Aid's answered without looking at the screen, "Hello! This is the lab of Professor Oak, how may I be of assistance today?"

"Kerry," Vali said gaining the aid's full attention, "I need to talk with the Professor,"

"I'll transfer you to his office though you might have to wait a few minutes since he's trying to give that Eevee his shots," Kerry winced as a loud crash sounded, "It isn't exactly going well,"

"I understand," Vali said earning a tense smile.

The screen turned grey with the words transferring call floating across the screen and a rather cheerful song that she didn't recognize came from the speakers. Vali ended up waiting about ten minutes before Professor Oak finally answered the call. He looked worn out, "Ah, Vali! It's nice to see you."

"You too, Professor," Vali looked at him in concern, "Are you okay?"

"Just tired, Eevee is a little rascal that does not like needles one bit," Vali didn't blame Eevee since needles were evil things, "He's recovering well and I might be able to send him to you next month,"

Well, that was a little unexpected though the information was appreciated, "Thanks, Professor. Tell him that I said hi and that I'm glad he's doing better."

"Do you want to do it yourself?" Professor Oak asked, "Alakazam is currently holding him still with Psychic to keep him still while I check his bandages,"

Vali nodded without really needing to think about it and Eevee was levitated in front of the screen. He definitely looked better than he had especially since there weren't as many bandages wrapped around his body. The only part of his body that could move were his eyes and they widened at the sight of her before narrowing into a glare. Smiling warmly at him, she said, "Hey, Eevee. Professor Oak tells me that you're doing better now. I expected as much since you're a fighter and fighters don't stay down long. I can't wait until you physically heal since it means we'll get to see one another again soon."

Alakazam nodded to her before moving Eevee away from the screen and Professor Oak reappeared, "Is there something you need, Vali?"

"Did you check out my latest capture yet?" Vali asked earning a confused look.

"Give me a moment," Professor Oak disappeared for a moment before letting out a sharp gasp and returning, "You caught a shiny Sandshrew?!"

"I didn't know she was shiny until I scanned her after I caught her," Vali explained Sandshrew's story earning a sad look from Professor Oak, "I was calling to ask if you had any advice for me other than the whole keep an eye on her and everything,"

Professor Oak hummed softly, "I would say treat her like any other pokemon, but I know you'll already do that. Shiny pokemon aren't that much diffrent than a normal one other than the color scheme. As she is a baby pokemon, I would advise you to follow Nurse Joy's advice."

Vali nodded lightly, "I'll do just that. By the way, how do you go about training a Sandshrew to find stones like how you discussed in your lecture?"

"I don't remember that information off the top of my head, but I can easily upload it into your pokedex. I assume Steven is going to want the same information?" Professor Oak asked earning a nod from Vali, "I'll have to searching through my files, but it shouldn't take longer than a day or so. I'll also send over some files on Eevee care to you. It's unfortunate that you can't come back to Pallet town as my next lecture is actually on them,"

"I am too, Professor. Those lectures are sometimes the highlight of my week," Professor Oak's lectures were amazing which was why so many people came to the lab every month to hear one, "By the way, how soon is the Ponyta and Rapidash migration going to happen near Vermilion?"

"Another month and a half," That wasn't that bad especially if they stayed in Cerulean that long, "Any others?"

"Not really since I know how hard its going to be to catch a Vulpix at this time of year," It was easier to wait until late winter and early spring to try to find one unless you were lucky enough to have one choose to become your pokemon, "Unless I'm lucky, but I doubt I am,"

Professor Oak nodded, "If that's all, I should see to Eevee."

"Talk to you later, Professor," Vali replied.

"Good luck on your next gym badge, Vali," Professor Oak replied before the call cut off.

Vali left the private booth and decided to go check the notice board she'd seen earlier. If anything, it might have a few things that she'd be interested in do or something that Steven might want to do. Cerulean had a lot of stuff to do after all.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997: We are in Cerulean and some stuff happens in this chapter that I'm really eager to hear what you guys think about it. I also revealed a little something in this book that may be foreshadowing some stuff that will come up later though I'll let you guys guess it. If everything goes according to plan, Cerulean will be finished next chapter. I am going to be world building too which is kind of needed even if some people might disagree. Love you guys and hope you enjoy this chapter as much or even more than the others.**

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 **Twister60:** **I'm glad you liked it.**

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**Jostanos: You're absolutely right. Yeah, I wanted to be a bit unique, ya know. It had to happen sometime. Perhaps, but perhaps not. *Wiggles eyebrows* I look forward to making you wait for that answer.**

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 **san .denzel: Thank you and I agree. I hope that I can avoid the potholes and make this fic into something unique. I think I'm already doing a good job at least when it comes to the crossover section. I will strive to continue doing so. If you're looking for a good fic, you might want to try Traveler by ****The Straight Elf. It's really good and helped inspire me to write my own.**

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 **darkworkangel : Here's the update and they happen twice a month so long as I have inspiration. One around the 1st to 10th and then one around 20th to 30th. So you're really only waiting about a week and a half give or take some days between updates. Not that bad compared to some fics that only update once every three months or once every couple of years.**

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 **Words: 15,458**

* * *

Chapter five

* * *

Smaug growled loudly and glared at the Arceus be damned Bellsprout he was battling. He was a fire-type Arceus dammit this should be easy. He bared his tiny fangs feeling his power bubble up underneath his skin. The irritating itch that he'd been feeling for weeks had intensified and only pissed him off more. He heard Vali shout, "Smaug, hit it an Ember attack! I know you can do it."

Balto barked beside her and Smaug's need to win intensified. If he could take down a stupid rock-rhino and do damage to a gigantic rock-snake, he could win this battle. The Bellsprout was going down! Immediatly, the power beneath his skin bubbled over and he felt it infuse itself into each of his cells changing him into something far stronger than his current form. He roared at the slight pain running through his body as well as the fact that he was one step closer to becoming a Charizard.

* * *

Vali covered her eyes as Smaug was enveloped in a bright white light. When the light died down, Smaug's new form was revealed and she grinned at the sight of him feeling pride well up in her chest. Bright cherry red scales coated a majority of his body, Smaug's underbelly was a pale rosy color. Smaug's claws had turned white as well as lengthened and gleamed in the light. The tail flame that marked the entire Charmander line was bright and proud. On the back of Smaug's head, a horn-like protrusion sat while his muzzle had lengthened out slightly and the shape of his eyes had narrowed a bit. Smaug stood at his height of 3 foot and 7 inches give or take a few. She beamed at Smaug as he turned his head towards her and shouted, "You look totally amazing, Smaug. I'm so proud of you for evolving," Smaug grinned at her and spat out a burst of fire towards the ground, "Let's see what you can do with your evolution!" Smaug nodded, "Hit it with Ember!"

Smaug roared and released a large amount of coal-like projectiles towards the Bellsprout at a speed he hadn't been capable of before. The Bellsprout let out a cry of pain before fainting earning a groan from its trainer. Smaug began walking over to her only to trip on his own two feet. She giggled softly as she moved forward to help him up. The opposing trainer said, "Congrats on the evolution."

"Thank and nice battle. Your Bellsprout is really strong," Vali said as she helped Smaug to his feet, "It shouldn't be long until it evolves,"

"True," The girl smiled faintly, "Thanks for the battle,"

"No problem especially since you helped push Smaug into finally evolving," Vali was so happy that'd he'd evolved if only because it would hopefully stop him from having anymore angry outbursts.

In the last few days since they arrived in Cerulean, Smaug's temper had been very short and explosive. Thankfully, he'd managed to keep himself from exploding around Sandshrew, but it had been very close. Pidgey wouldn't go near Smaug after he'd nearly turned her into fire roasted Pidgey. Pikachu had shocked the fire-lizard silly this morning for burning his tail. Balto had ended up pinning Smaug to the ground eight times in the last few days and forcing the Charmander to calm down. With his evolution, Smaug would hopefully be a lot calmer though it would likely take a few weeks. The Charmander-line had some of the worst hormonal outbursts after their evolution which was actually quite common in most Dragon-types save for the Dratini-line. Which further proved that the Charmander-line did have dragons in their ancestry, it just made many wonder why the fire drakes had shucked their dragon-typing for flying. Inwardly shaking her head, Vali took the offered prize money which was a generous 200 poke as the opposing trainer, Darcy, said, "You should try to be in Celadon City in three months," Vali looked at her in confusion, "They have this really cool Grass Vs Fire tournament every year. I entered with my Gloom last year and managed to get into fourth place. It's divided between the number of badges you have in the region and your age. Once you beat out your age and badge bracket, you'll face the winners of the other ones. If that Charmeleon is any indication, you'll probably get into the top ten at the very least."

Vali smiled as she glanced down at Smaug and Balto. The two were looking up at her with pleading eyes telling her that they wanted to at least check it out. With a soft laugh, she looked at Darcy, "I think we'll check it out if we're in the area. Thanks for the information."

"No problem. I hope that I see you guys there," Darcy waved before heading in the direction of the pokemon center.

Vali watched her go before turning to Smaug. She bent down and hugged him gently, "I'm very proud of you for evolving, Smaug, and I hope that this means you won't have too many more angry outbursts," Smaug nodded and hugged her in return, "I won't be able to carry you anymore as you're a little bit too heavy now, but that just means you'll be following Balto's example and walking next to me," She pulled away with a grin, "Once we get you checked out at the pokemon center, we'll be going over your moves and seeing how much more power you have access to. We'll be working on refining your control as well and maybe attempting to learn Flamethrower a bit early. That sound alright?" Smaug nodded with a grin, "Then I'm going to return you for now. I want to don't want to stress your body out too much."

After returning Smaug, Vali headed back to the pokemon center with Balto. While Smaug was being checked out by Nurse Joy, she would be doing research of the current gym leaders of Cerulean city. Grace and Walter Waterflower. They were a pair of married gym leaders that were planning on giving their gym over to their three eldest daughters once they turned 13 as was the age you needed to be in order to become a gym leader. They had four children with three triplets around her age and one daughter around Ash's age if what she read online was correct. They were a water-type gym and one of the only ones that did double battles in Kanto. During the weekend, they closed down the gym and used it to either teach kids to swim or do small water shows. On Saturdays, the gym held lectures similar to Professor Oak only the lectures were by traveling trainers.

* * *

"...And I was really hoping you would take the time out of your busy schedule to give a lecture or two on Steel-types," Vali heard as she walked into the cafeteria after dropping off Smaug.

Vali spotted Steven standing with a rather pretty red haired woman with bright green eyes. She walked over, "Steven."

"I thought you would be battling a bit longer," Steven smiled at her.

"Smaug evolved during my last battle and I thought it best to get him checked out at the pokemon center," Vali replied looking at the woman curiously, "I am Vali Potter,"

"Grace Waterflower," The woman answered with a light smile, "Congratulations on your pokemon evolving. If I may ask, what is he?"

"He was a Charmander," Vali said earning a soft laugh, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ma'am. I'm hoping to challenge your gym in a few weeks once I get in some training against water-types,"

"You must be one of those trainers sponsored by Professor Oak," Grace said earning a nod, "If I may ask, would you care to give a lecture at some point while you're here? We don't have many trainers traveling through here at this point in the season,"

Vali flushed lightly and shook her head, "Sorry, Ma'am. I would, but I'm not that good at public speaking."

Vali didn't like speaking in front of a lot of people. She would have to get used to it eventually what with how big the League Conferences were. Grace looked down for a second before brightening, "You need to get some experience battling water-types, don't you?" Vali nodded slowly not seeing where she was going with this, "I can set up a battle between you and my three daughters. They're not very good yet, but it is experience."

"This is if I give a lecture, isn't it?" Vali asked earning a nod, "I don't know..."

"It isn't very many people," Grace assured her, "Just maybe ten little kids and a handful of adults,"

"Well," Vali looked at Steven and he gave her an encouraging smile, "I guess I could do that,"

"Great," Grace looked at Steven, "And you, Steven?"

"I don't see why not especially if it may convince someone to take an interest in becoming a Steel-type trainer," Steven said earning a squeal of joy from Grace.

Vali stiffened as she was pulled into a hug by the woman and didn't relax even when she was released. Grace beamed at them not seeming to notice Vali's frozen form, "Thank you both! I'll come by tomorrow with information and schedules."

Vali stared after Grace as she tried to calm her nerves. When Steven placed a hand on her shoulder, the fire-type master in training flinched and moved away on instinct only to inwardly curse a bit for the action. She looked at him with a sheepish expression noting his concerned look as he asked, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Vali hated herself just a little for lying to Steven, "I think I'm just going to take a small nap. I'm not hungry right now,"

"Are you sure?" Steven asked earning a fake smile from her.

"Yeah. I'll see you later," Vali said before heading towards her room.

As soon as she reached it, Vali shut and locked the door before placing her back against it as she breathed out sharply. She slid down the door to sit on the floor as Balto looked at her in concern. She blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall. She reached out to him as her other pokemon released themselves from their pokeballs. She hugged Balto to her chest and burrowed her face in her soft fur as she murmured, "I hate it. I hate the fact that if I'm suddenly touched or hugged by strangers, I end up freezing up. I hate that I can't stop those reactions," Balto let out a whine as Pidgey, Pikachu, and Sandshrew moved to surround her as best they could, "I hate them. I hate the fact that my own kin caused this to happen. I hate them so much, but I hate myself even more sometimes. I hate the fact that I wasn't strong enough to stop them or that I wasn't normal enough for them to love me. I hate that they couldn't love me. Why was it so hard for them to love me?"

* * *

When Vali didn't come down for dinner or to pick up Smaug, Steven got worried and headed up to her room. He tried knocking on the door, but received no answer. Frowning, he called out Metagross and asked, "Can you find out what's going on with Vali?"

Metagross let out a metallic groan before doing as he asked, " _Friend Vali is asleep against the door with her pokemon curled around her. It seems that she had a breakdown and is currently having a nightmare. We cannot find out why unless we have her permission both out of courtesy and because it would be damaging."_

Steven frowned wondering what had caused Vali to have a breakdown and a nightmare. Could it have something to do with Grace hugging them? If so, why? Inwardly sighing, Steven ordered, "Lift them out of the way so we can get in."

Metagross made an affirmative sound and glowed lightly prompting Steven to try the door only to find it locked. Grimacing, he had Metagross unlock the door. He didn't enjoy invading Vali's privacy, but he was worried about her. Entering the room, he found Vali's pokemon surrounding her with concerned expressions. Sandshrew was crying and nuzzling Vali attempting to get her to wake up. He walked over to the bed as he heard Vali whisper, "N-no. Please Uncle Vernon, I didn't mean to. Please no. No. No. No!"

Steven's eyes widened and he quickly worked on waking her up, "Vali, you need to wake up."

Vali shot up within seconds breathing hard and looking around with a fearful expression on her face. She flinched at the sight of him whispering, "S-steven?"

Swallowing at the panicked expression on her face, Steven spoke in a measured tone, "I was worried when you didn't show up for dinner or to pick up Smaug from Nurse Joy. I came up to find out what was wrong and when you didn't answer the door, I had Metagross check on you. He said you had a breakdown and were having a nightmare. I couldn't leave you alone knowing that, so I had Metagross get us inside."

"O-oh," Vali's face flushed slightly though that didn't hide how pale she was, "S-sorry to worry you,"

Steven frowned at Vali. He didn't want to push her, but that nightmare she was having had made him suspicious. No, he'd already had his suspicions since the Eevee incident. With how she'd reacted and the look in her eyes, the suspicious had formed. All the little flinches, tensing, and so many other things had increased his suspicions. He spoke softly, "Vali, I'm going to ask a question. You don't have to give me any details. I just want the truth. Okay?"

Vali's eyes widened and fear filled her eyes, "S-steven."

Steven flinched a bit at the fear, but went on. He needed to know if only to offer her a way to vent since she clearly needed it. He kept his soft tone, "The answer you give won't change my thoughts about you, but I need to know if only to make things easier on you," He watched her swallow and slowly nod, "Were you abused, Vali?"

Vali flinched with wide eyes a low sounding whimper slipped from her throat. She shook slightly as Smaug released himself from the pokeball that Steven had been planning to return to her. The Charmeleon got onto the bed and glared at him with a warning growl. He ignored the fire-type as he focused on Vali as she slowly curled inward on herself. He was mentally cursing himself for not finding a better way to breech the subject, but there really wasn't a good way to do it. Vali's breathing became sharp and harsh causing Metagross to comment, " _It seems she is having a panic attack."_

Steven mentally scolded himself for not waiting, but he carefully reached out making sure Vali could see all his movement. Metagross kept Vali's pokemon immobile which was a good thing since they all looked ready to attack him even Sandshrew. He picked Vali up gently and settled on her bed before settling her in his lap. He tried to think of how to calm her down and recalled one of the few memories he had of his mother. Whenever he wasn't feeling well or had gotten scared, she'd always sang to him. He wasn't much of a singer, but he could hum. Taking a deep breath, he began humming softly. It took awhile before Vali began to relax against him and slowly uncurled from her ball. Eventually, she laid her head on his shoulder and murmured a quiet, "Yes."

Steven flinched a bit at the brokenness of her voice, but kept humming. Metagross released her pokemon and they cautiously curled around him. Vali grabbed Sandshrew and cuddled the little ground-type. When he stopped humming, he said, "I'm sorry for scaring you and bringing up bad memories, but I had to know if my suspicions were correct."

"How did you-" Vali pulled away to look at him in shock.

"I started getting a bit suspicious back during the Eevee incident," Steven explained making her flinch a bit at the reminder, "From there, it was little things like you flinching a bit at loud noises, stiffening if I touched you, and things like that. It wasn't until Metagross said that you had a breakdown and were having a nightmare that everything kind of clicked," He winced slightly, "I'm sorry for not finding a better way to breech the subject, but I was worried,"

"I...I understand," Vali murmured looking down at Sandshrew, "I...I don't like talking about it,"

"You don't have to talk about it, if you don't want to," Steven told her as he watched her calm down further, "I'm here if you want to talk about it. I may not have been..." He shook his head lightly, "But I do know that it helps to have someone to vent to even if they don't understand things fully,"

"I don't want pity," Vali frowned at him.

"I'm not pitying you," Steven could never pity her, "If anything, I admire you for being able to make it through that point in your life. You may not be whole because of it, but you're alive which means you weren't broken by them,"

Vali's eyes were a bit wide and Steven was struck by how cute she looked when she was surprised. She blushed lightly and shook her head, "I..."

Steven had a feeling she wanted to get out of this situation, "How about we get you all something to eat? I doubt you've eaten lunch or dinner which isn't a good thing considering our life-style."

Vali nodded quickly and scrambled to get off the bed with her pokemon. Everyone's stomach's rumbled and they headed down to the cafeteria which wouldn't be closing until after eleven. After they'd eaten, Steven offered, "Do you want to stay with me tonight?"

Vali shook her head, "I'll be fine."

Steven shrugged knowing that he couldn't push her, "My door is always open if you need it."

Vali stared at him for a moment before her lips quirked into a small smile and she nodded, "Thank you."

* * *

Vali stared at the ceiling after head up to her room for the night. Steven knew that she'd been abused. He didn't know who had done it only that it had happened. On one hand, she didn't like that he knew about it. On the other hand, she was relieved since it meant she didn't have to hide it. He knew and there was nothing she could do about it. The fact that he'd put it together and only asked her for confirmation rather than ask who had done it was a nice. The only ones that knew outside of Sirius were Professor Oak, Delia, and a few League officials that were bound by silence. Not even Ash, Gary, or Daisy knew about the abuse, the rangers that worked with Sirius didn't either though she knew that some probably suspected it.

Knowing that someone she considered a friend knew, it was disconcerting and made her a little unhappy. Not at Steven, she wasn't unhappy with him, but with Hermione and Ron. They had been her friends and Ron had seen the bars on her window back in second year along with his brothers. Fred and George had been the ones that had confronted her about the abuse though they didn't know everything and were the ones that she'd ended up going to when she woke up from nightmares. Knowing that Steven could help her when she had a nightmare, she felt relieved if a bit reluctant since that would mean letting him take the Twin's place. Then again, he wasn't taking their place since they would be doing it if they were here.

Letting out a soft sigh, Vali rolled onto her side and closed her eyes. She needed to sleep not thinking about what happened. It had happened and nothing was going to change that fact. She listened to her pokemon's breathing and felt their warmth around her feeling herself relax.

* * *

Steven didn't bring up her abuse the next morning when she joined him for breakfast. He only asked her if she wanted to go take a look at the open air market together. They headed out with Smaug walking beside her in an attempt to get used to his new body and Pidgey settled on her shoulder. The flying type was getting heavier and starting to gain some diversity in her feather which meant she would be evolving soon enough. Once she got done at the market, she would be attempting to get Pidgey to evolve. Vali paused at one of the stands where a woman was selling lava-rocks and lava cookies. She bought a few and handed Smaug one of the lava cookies earning a growl of pleasure from the lizard. The woman smiled at the sight, "You two have a good bond. How long have you been training him?"

"A few months now," Vali said earning a surprised look, "He's my starter,"

"You're from Pallet Town then?" The woman asked as Vali ran her finger's through Pidgey's breast feathers and the trainer nodded, "I haven't seen one of those from Pallet town in a month. You're a bit behind the others,"

"Distance wise, but taking my time and getting my pokemon as strong as possible makes it more than worth it," Vali replied not really minding that she was behind the ones that had left the moment they got their starter pokemon.

If Vali had left with them, she wouldn't have been able to travel with Steven. Sure, it might have saved her from the rough trip through Viridian Forest, but it was more than worth it. She managed to get Sandshrew which wouldn't have happened if she had gone through Mount Moon earlier than she had. She wouldn't have been as prepared for Flint nor would she have made it through Mount Moon quite a quickly. Her pokemon wouldn't have benefited from being around more experienced pokemon and getting valuable advice. She wouldn't have gotten a good friend and traveling partner that helped her keep from making mistakes. In the end, she would never regret waiting to start her journey or having Steven as a traveling partner.

Soon, Vali continued browsing the open air market and ended up picking up a pair of goggles. Unless someone had a psychic-type, any battles outside of League or Gym sanctioned ones were not surrounded by a psychic field. While not having goggles at the beginning of any journey was fine, the battles that occurred later on with more powerful pokemon tended to cause a lot of debris to be kicked up which meant goggles were essential. Any trainer with a flying type had to have goggles as well to ensure their eyes were protected during any flights. While the goggles she picked up weren't the best quality, they would work until she could afford a better pair. Not to mention, they were her favorite color: Dark Red.

Vali also ended up picking up a few novels for times when she was bored, her pokedex was charging, it was raining, etc. They weren't anything special just a few adventure novels and a mythology book. The mythology book was a rather beaten book that had obviously been lost to time until it ended up on the second hand book table she'd found it on. While Professor Oak was the leading authority on Pokemon, he didn't really talk about the legendaries that supposedly existed which was a shame in her opinion. The most she heard Professor Oak talk about was Celebi. Don't get her wrong, Celebi was an amazing legendary, but a pokemon that basically used time travel like a play-toy wasn't something she enjoyed thinking about. Call it a fear or something, but she didn't like time-travel.

The legendaries that called to Vali were Ho-oh, Lugia, the bird trio, and the legendary dogs. Of those legends, she absolutely loved Moltres. The legendary fire bird that was basically fire itself given mortal form. The respect and adoration she bore fore the fire bird was even higher than anything she felt for Fawkes. If there was one thing she wanted to do in this world, it was meet the Kantonia legend of fire. It wasn't because she wanted to challenge it, no, she wanted to see it for herself and admire its beauty. Whether from afar or up close, she didn't care so long as it happened.

Vali headed to the pokemon center soon after buying those books. She settled down in the common room area and began reading the mythology book after letting out her pokemon. She absentmindedly scratched behind Balto's ears in between turning pages. It wasn't until Balto barked and shook the book when he jumped off of the couch she'd been sitting on that she stopped reading. She looked up to find Steven walking into the room, "Hey."

"Find something interesting at the market?" Steven asked as he bent down to pet Balto.

"I got some more lava rocks, some lava cookies, a pair of goggles, and some books for when things get slow," Vali marked her page which was on the origin of the legendary bird trio, "I was reading this,"

"You're interested in mythology?" Steven looked at the book curiously.

Vali nodded as she helped Sandshrew up onto the couch and rubbed the small pokemon stomach earning a coo of pleasure, "Yes though it's mostly Ho-oh, Lugia, the bird trio, and the legendary dogs. They call to me though Moltres is the one that I have the most interest in."

Steven sat down on the couch as Pikachu and Balto began to rough house a little, "Because its one of the fire-type legendaries?"

"That and it reminds me of a creature from back home," Vali smiled down at Sandshrew, "They're called phoenixes and most go their entire lives without seeing one. Back at school, the headmaster had one for a familiar. I can't explain what a familiar is because I've never had one," Hedwig could have been hers and she dearly missed her faithful owl, "Fawkes, the phoenix, saved my life twice that day in the chamber of secrets. Even before then, I've always had an admiration for phoenixes especially after I touched him for the first time. The warmth he gave off called to me in a way that I can't really explain," Vali's mind went back to Fawkes, "I've always had a love of fire even back when I was just a baby, if Sirius is to be believed. Meeting Fawkes and feeling the warmth he gave off, I felt...like something in my soul had come alive," She smiled softly as she remembered her last trip to the headmaster's office and how Fawkes had settled in her lap, "It's really hard to describe. Moltres...It isn't a phoenix, but it's a being of fire given mortal form in ways that the other fire-type legendaries aren't. One day, I want to meet it not for a battle, but to see it for myself and perhaps feel that warmth again," She paused as her cheeks lit up and she realized she'd been rambling, "Sorry,"

"It fine," Steven smiled lightly at her, "You're really passionate about this,"

Vali nodded as she looked at the book, "Yeah. Professor Oak doesn't really talk about the legendaries save for Celebi which is a shame."

"Do you not like Celebi?" Steven asked as she frowned.

Vali shook her head, "It's not that I don't like Celebi. It's an amazing creature along with Dialga, but I don't like the idea of beings being able to use time as a play-toy. It's an unsettling thought especially considering how Sirius and I..." She trailed off as her hand went to her chest where the golden tinted scars created by the time turner's shattering rested and grimaced as they chilled slightly, "It scares me more than a little. Even if they're legendaries and are supposed to uphold some kind of balance in the world, I just..."

"It's unsettling," Steven offered earning a nod from her, "What happened there?"

Steven was pointing at her hand and Vali flushed lightly, "When the hour-glass shattered, pieces of it and the sand embedded themselves into my skin. While the glass was gotten rid of along with most of the sand, it left its mark on me."

The uncomfortable souvenir that served as a reminder of how close her magic came to killing her. Steven gained an understanding look, "I see. So how did Fawkes save you that day?"

Relief ran through Vali when Steven changed the conversation though she didn't quite like the story he asked for, she began telling him the story after ensuring that the common room was empty of all save for them. The words that left her mouth were stilted at first before turning smoother as her mind went back to that day. The memories before entering the chamber itself were dull and not something she thought of. Even the memories of Tom Riddle were dull, the things she recalled were the unmistakable scent of algae, the pungent odor death from the rats, and old air that filled the damp chamber. The chill that had swept over her body the moment she entered the chamber that worsened when she spotted Ginny's far too still body. The coldness emanating from Ginny's body despite the fact that death had yet to claim her. The sound of ancient stones grinding against one another and the slithering of a snake far larger than anything she'd encountered before. The sound of the snakes hissing mixed in a terrifyingly melody with Fawkes song as heat finally returned to her bones. The way her heart pounded in her chest as she ran from the snake in an attempt to buy herself time was as addicting as when she flew as fast as she could. The heavy weight of the sword in her hand as it came from the sorting hat and the coldness that filled her heart which grew as she killed the great beast that had survived over a thousand years within the chamber. The sadness she'd felt for the creature that had been left to rot in loneliness even as its oh so cold venom _burned_ its way through her veins. The contempt and anger she felt towards Riddle as she drove the fang that had been stuck in her arm into the diary he'd come from. The acceptance she'd felt towards her death as she lay within the chamber knowing that she would never again return to her kin. The blazing hot warmth to soothed the burns of the venom and healed the aches of her body. Of all those things she'd felt within the chamber, it was the cold venom and hot phoenix tears that Fawkes had cried for her that stuck out the most.

* * *

Steven listened to Vali alongside her pokemon as she recounted the chamber of secrets. At first, the flow of her words was stilted and dull as if there was no luster to her memories of that time. Then, the flow of her words turned smooth and her eyes gained a glazed look that told him she was remembering what had happened as she spoke. He could almost envision the snake as she described it. Dark green almost black scales, a mouth large enough to swallow a Snorlax whole, fangs as long as she was tall, and a body as long as a bullet train if not longer and rounder. He could almost see the phoenix she described within his mind. A body like a Swanna only smaller, feathers stained various shades of red and golds, molten gold orbs that burned with the bird's inner fire, sharp talons the color of varnished gold, and a voice far sweeter than any candy and more soothing than an Alteria's hum. He could almost see Vali running from the snake after Fawkes blinded it. He pressed a hand to his heart as she described plunging the sword into the snake's mouth and feeling sorry for the beast's lackluster life. He stared at Vali in horror as she described what it felt like with basilisk venom within her veins and her acceptance of the death that had been before her. He thanked Fawkes the phoenix for saving Vali with his magical tears. By the end of the story, Steven felt worn out.

Vali paused for a moment before speaking breaking the spell that had fallen over them all, "After that, Ginny, Fawkes, and I gathered up Ron plus Lockhart before heading back up the tunnel. That's it."

Steven said the only thing he could at that moment, "That school of yours is almost as dangerous as being a pokemon trainer."

Vali let out a laugh which made her eyes look far less shadowed and her face less pale. Steven found himself smiling as he listened to her laugh and he found himself wishing to hear more. Vali's laughter didn't sound like bells, but it was soft and nice to listen to. When she finished laughing, she smiled at him, "Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh, but that's the first time I've ever heard someone say that and the fact its so true..."

"I can somewhat understand, but I hope that you tell me more about that school of yours," Steven said earning a nod from Vali, "For now, I think it's about time we get some lunch,"

"That's probably a good idea," Vali put the mythology book away.

Steven stood up as he said, "What do you want to do after lunch?"

"Maybe go check out the bay and see if any of the sailors wouldn't mind battling. Pidgey's so close to evolving and I'd like her to evolve before the gym battle to give her that extra boost. I'd also like to give her more time to get used to her new body before we end up traveling," Vali stood up while picking up Sandshrew.

It was a smart plan and one he didn't mind helping her with. They could also take some time to look over how to train their Sandshrew to find certain stones. He couldn't wait to see just how many stones he could have his Sandshrew learn to find. The prospect of being able to find evolutionary stones easier made him more than a little eager to go searching. He wouldn't bring this information to his father's attention until he'd managed to train his Sandshrew. He knew that Vali hoped to teach her Sandshrew to find fire stones though what other stones she planned on teaching Sandshrew to find were up in the air. He glanced at Sandshrew and smiled slightly at the contented expression on her face. Sandshrew was like Vali in a way though the ground-type was far more innocent than Vali. Perhaps it was fate that brought Sandshrew to Vali, he wasn't too sure though he thought that the black haired witch was definitely the right trainer for the ground-type.

* * *

"Pidgey, dodge it and use Gust!" Vali shouted as the opposing trainer had their Wingull use Water Gun.

Thankfully, Pidgey had trained with Squirtle and knew how to dodge Water Guns. Pidgey let out a shrill trill as she banked to the left before flapping her wings quickly as they gained a transparent glow to them. A fierce wind was kicked up and slammed into the Wingull. While it may not cause as much damage as it usually would had Wingull not been a dual Flying/Water-type, it still caused enough damage to make Wingull cry out and fly back a bit. Wingull let out a fierce crying and dove forward as its trainer called out, "Wing Attack and Supersonic, Wingull. Take out that Pidgey!"

"Pidgey dodge as best you can! Use Quick Attack to boost your speed and hit it with Steel Wing if it gets too close!" Vali inwardly cursed at the fact the Wingull knew Supersonic.

It was a move she disliked both because of how it confused pokemon and because of how shrill it sounded. Oh, it was a viable move that she would use if on of her pokemon ever learned the move, but she didn't like it. Thankfully, it didn't have 100% accuracy which meant that Pidgey just needed to avoid getting hit by it. Pidgey quickly followed her orders as Wingull flew towards the tiny bird. Pidgey movements blurred as she utilized Quick Attack and began to fly circles around the dual-type attempting to hit her. Wingull screeched out its Supersonic and Pidgey managed to move behind the other pokemon before it could get close. With glowing wings, Pidgey nailed the Wingull in the back with a Steel Wing causing Wingull's Supersonic to cut off in a choked squawk as the bird began to fall towards the ground. However, Wingull managed to pull itself up before it hit the ground though it flew fairly close the ground looking more than a little bruised. Wingull's trained winced at the sight of his pokemon, "Wingull, can you continue?"

Wingull dipped its beak letting out a proud cry as it glared at Pidgey. Wingull was a fighter and wouldn't stop until it was down for the count. Vali marveled at the fighting spirit that Wingull showed and felt her heart beat speed up a little. Flying-types were proud, not as proud as Fire-types, but they were still very proud beings. They didn't bow down easily and it took a special hand to bring out the best in them. As docile as they were, the Pidgey line wouldn't bow down to anyone that didn't prove themselves to be a competent trainer and have been known to disappear if the trainer that caught them proved to be far too weak. She wondered if Wingull were the same as the two flying-types drew even and Wingull let out a war cry that Pidgey echoed. Clenching her hand, she called out, "Pidgey, use Sand attack into Gust! Quick Attack if you need to dodge for whatever reason and Steel Wing if it gets too close. You can do this!"

Pidgey let out a cry of acknowledgement before starting her attack. Kicking up a cloud of dirt with Sand Attack, the tiny bird pokemon began to flap her wings quickly. The fierce wind of Gust sent the dirt cloud created by the Sand Attack towards Wingull at a swift pace. Wingull managed to dodge the main part of the attack, but got hit by the crosswinds created by Gust and found itself pelted with a few of the rocks that ended up in the cloud of dirt. Wingull let out a sharp cry of pain, but managed to shake it off as it shot a Water Gun towards Pidgey. Pidgey dodged it before rushing forward with Quick Attack and Steel Wing sending the quickly tiring Wingull towards the ground. Wingull attempted to get up and managed it for a moment before it fell to its side in a dead faint. Wingull's trainer returned the bird as Pidgey flew towards Vali. Vali beamed at Pidgey, "Good job, Pidgey! I knew you could win that battle."

Pidgey let out a cry of victory before being enveloped in a blinding white glow. Everyone on the section of the pier they were currently standing on stopped for a few moments to watch the evolution with no small sense of awe. While Pidgey were common pokemon, evolution was always a sight of awe for everyone. It was an event celebrated not only by trainer and pokemon alike, but by those seeing it. To see a pokemon evolve into something more powerful, it was a mark of growth that no one could ignore. When the glow faded, Pidgey was gone and Pidgeotto stood in her place.

Pidgeotto was larger than Pidgey by two feet at least and larger in body too. Pidgeotto's wing span was larger due to the bird's muscles becoming larger in order to support the bird in flight. Pidgeotto's claws and beak were larger than Pidgey's to allow the bird to latch onto their prey easier. The bird pokemon now had a long stream of bright red feathers coming from their forehead that were supposed to help the bird read the wings better. Pidgeotto had more feathers than Pidgey that were thicker and more durable to allow for better protection from the elements as the bird tended to gravitate to plains and mountains after their evolution. Pidgeotto's bones were thicker than a Pidgey though could still be broken if enough force was applied. They had a thicker layer of fat that protected not only their vital organs, but the added flight organs that allowed the bird pokemon to fly at higher altitudes. Pidgeotto had longer tail feathers that would assist in reading the winds and allow for better balance in the air. Pidgeotto let out a cry prompting Vali to shake her head and congratulate her pokemon on evolving as Balto barked and Wingull's trainer breathed out, "That's one beautiful lady."

"Pidgeotto!" Vali called moving towards her newly evolved pokemon slowly as Pidgeotto focused on her, "You look absolutely wonderful, Girl,"

Vali made sure to keep their eyes locked and her breathing even. After evolution, flying-types had a period of time where any form of loyalty they felt towards their trainer fell into the background. It was during this time that the trainer needed to lock eyes with their flying-type and have a small stare down. The trainer couldn't look away at all or blink otherwise the flying-type would attack. It reminded her of Hippogriffs only without the whole bowing thing. Pidgeotto stared at her for awhile before breaking the staring contest to bow her head. Walking forward with a smile, Vali reached out and rubbed the bird pokemon's breast feathers earning a coo.

Vali turned her head towards the Wingull trainer as he walked over, "That was a very nice battle, Vali."

"That it was, Charles," Vali replied as Pidgeotto cuddled into her side and rubbed her cheek against Vali's, "Thank you for your help in giving Pidgey that final push to evolve,"

"It's no trouble, but I hope you know that Wingull will be wishing for a rematch at some point," Charles laughed with a grin as he adjusted his sailor hat.

"I think Pidgeotto and I would like that though it will have to wait until after she's adjusted to her new body," Vali turned and pressed a kiss to Pidgeotto's cheek.

"Of course," Charles laughed and handed over the nice 250 poke-dollars she'd won.

With that, they said their goodbyes and Vali found herself being congratulated on the win. A few of the other sailors and pier workers offered to battle her. She told them that she would be happy to battle them later once she got Pidgeotto checked out before heading over to where Steven was lowering her camera. She returned Pidgeotto for now knowing that the bird pokemon could use the rest and not wanting to stress out the newly evolved pokemon. Steven handed her the camera as she said, "That last battle was a bit rough especially since Pidgey had already battled four other pokemon."

"In the end, she managed to pull through and I got some nice pictures for you to send home," Steven said earning a thankful smile, "I'm going to be getting back Skarmory as Mawile is getting a bit antsy. She'll be a big help in getting Pidgeotto used to her new body,"

"I'll have to see if Pidgeotto wants a name now," Vali mused as they headed back to the pokemon center, "I'll also need to check if Pikachu wants one or not,"

"Are you going to wait a little while longer before asking Sandshrew if she wants a name?" Steven asked as they started passing through the open air market.

Vali hummed lightly as she thought about it before saying, "I'll wait for a little bit longer. I'm still coming up a bit blank on what names I could call her."

* * *

As it turned out, Pidgeotto was actually almost five inches larger than was common for her species and her wing span matched that. Considering the fact that she'd been malnourished when Vali had caught her, it showed just how much better off she'd been in Vali's care. Nurse Joy had recommend some exercises that would not only help Pidgeotto get used to her new body, but also prepare her for when she evolved into a Pidgeot and carry Vali. Vali would need to get a saddle for Pidgeotto once she evolved and one for Smaug as well. Considering the fact that she planned to raise a Ponyta, she would need to consider getting one for it as well. Well technically, she didn't actually need the saddles. It just made riding her pokemon a lot more comfortable. And if she desperately needed one, she could buy some manuals and make one herself.

Vali mentally grimaced at that thought. While making her own saddle would likely be cheaper, it wasn't something that would be a good idea especially since she'd never actually seen one before. None of the pokemon at the ranch ever had a saddle and Professor oak didn't have any at the lab. Why would he need one when he could use Alakazam to teleport him places? She would need to research various saddle companies and find a reasonably priced one that had a good reputation. Thankfully, it would be months before she actually needed a saddle. Taking out her pokedex, she made a note to start researching saddles.

Vali led Pidgeotto outside along with Smaug, "You two need to work on getting used to your bodies. Pidgeotto, I want you to get used to how big your body is. No flying until you get used to stretching out your wings fully and get used to how big they are. Once done, I want you to practice taking off and landing. Since you've just evolved, your center of gravity will be off which will make landings hard for you," Pidgeotto nodded slowly, "I also want you to use this time to decide if you want a nickname or not," Pidgeotto nodded again before hopping off to a corner where she could do as Vali asked, "Smaug," He looked at her curiously, "You've gotten somewhat used to walking around. I want you to try fast walking and running. If you feel like you're about to fall, I want you to stop then keep walking. Once you're able to run, I'll be testing to see what your limits are."

Smaug nodded and went off to do as she asked. Vali released Balto and Pikachu before giving them their own marching orders. Balto would be running sprints and pushing himself to become faster. Pikachu would be doing the same. Both Pikachu and Growlithe were speed based pokemon with Arcanine being hailed as one of the fastest pokemon alive, she needed to capitalize on that while also making them stronger. Right now, she wanted to push them to their limits and try to get past those limits. Vali would be running alongside them after getting stretched and warming up her body. Just because they were in a city, it didn't mean they could cut back on their training.

About thirty minutes into the session, Steven joined them and Vali felt that it would be alright to have Sandshrew out. Sandshrew watched the group of elder pokemon rushing around curiously from her place beside Claydol. Skarmory flew around doing laps keeping pace with the two running trainers. Steven spoke as they ran, "So today is about pushing their bodies to their limits?"

"Smaug and Pidgeotto are working out what their bodies can physically do right now," Vali answered working to keep her swift pace, "Once Smaug can run without tripping, I'll be testing how much more powerful he is and see what his new limits are. Pidgeotto will do the same thing once she gets to flying again. She's going to be practicing taking off and landing once she gets a good grasp on how much bigger she is,"

"Not a bad plan," Steven easily kept pace with her, "Grace stopped by. Our lectures are set for this Saturday. Mine will be first starting at 9 in the morning and ending at noon. The gym's providing lunch for us and your lecture will be at 1. Since it's your first lecture, Grace has set it up so you only need to talk for an hour. If you want to go longer, you can,"

Vali felt a bit of anxiety run through her at those words, but pushed it down, "Alright. Did she say when I'll be battling those three?"

"Sunday around 1 though you'll only have an hour since they have a water show at three and need an hour to get ready," Steven replied causing her mind to wander, "The other times you'll battle them are up to you three and Grace,"

Vali nodded as she sped up a bit, "I honestly don't know where to start a lecture other than saying hello, stating my name, age, and where I'm from."

"Well, you could talk about the things that school didn't prepare you for when going on a journey," Steven suggested as he kept pace with her, "You could have them ask questions and answer them. It's your lecture," Steven glanced at her, "I think there's more to this than not being good a public speaking,"

Vali was glad that her face was already a little flushed from the running. She looked forward as she said, "I'm just anxious when it comes to being around others. It's fine when its just a few people. I can't really explain where it started, but it got a lot worse when I first entered the...When I went shopping for school for the first time and ended up getting mobbed," Vali worked on keeping her breathing even, "School was kind of bad, but I learned how to deal with it. Focusing on school work or Quidditch made it easy to forget. I learned ways to avoid being in crowded places and things like that. When battling, it's easy to focus only on the battle especially when there aren't a lot of people around."

"The League conference is going to be difficult for you," Steven noted with a frown.

"I'm hoping that I'll be able to work up to it," Vali started to feel a bit tired and began to slow down, "I mean, it won't be too hard once I start battling. It's easy to forget everyone around me save for my pokemon, my opponents pokemon, and my opponent," She looked at Steven, "How do you deal with being in front of a crowd of people?"

Steven was quiet for a moment, "I suppose its due to the fact I've been in the spotlight ever since I was a child due to my Dad's company being so big. I've learned how to deal with it. Now days, I recite the properties of various stones until its time for me to speak or battle someone. You just need to find someway to keep your anxieties and stuff at bay."

"I guess it'll be trial and error," Vali slowed to a walk.

"Pretty much," Steven offered her an encouraging smile, "You'll figure it out,"

* * *

After training was done and they'd gotten dinner, Vali asked Pidgeotto if she wished for a name. The bird pokemon was still for a few moments before inclining her head. With that in mind, she began to list the various names she'd come up for the Pidgeotto before the bird settled on one. With a smile, she spoke Pidgeotto's new name, "Celina."

* * *

Gyms as a whole had to be large due to the fact they acted not only as a place for trainer to get gym badges, but local rally points for the League. The gym trainers and gym leaders also acted as the defenders of the city if something decided to attack. The gyms also acted as research facilities for certain types of pokemon, a shelter for rehabilitating pokemon that the Pokemon centers couldn't care for, and things like that. Each Gym also did things that were unique to the city it guards. In the case of Pewter, the gym acted as a learning facility for those attempting to become guides for the many caves and mountains around Kanto. In the case of Cerulean, the gym was where you became licensed to operate boats, become life guards, or anything else that came with being a water-side city.

Cerulean was larger than Pewter by a good bit and if it weren't for Grace leading them again, Vali would have gotten lost almost immediately after entering the building. Balto was a bit antsy though that mostly had to do with the fact they were walking through and under some tanks filled with water-type pokemon. She found herself pausing when she noticed one of the water types, "That's a Spheal, isn't it?"

Grace paused and looked back at her before nodding as the red haired woman walked over, "Yes. He's one of the pokemon we got from the recent exchange between gyms. He's rather cute, isn't he?"

"He is though he looks a bit unhappy," Vali walked closer to the tank where the Spheal was sitting.

Spheal was staring sightlessly towards the wall. It's black eyes blank which was an rather unusual thing when it came to a pokemon that was generally cheerful. Grace sighed deeply, "Spheal doesn't really like it here. He won't interact with any of the other pokemon and just ignores us. He does eat, but that's about it."

"Maybe he's lonely," Vali murmured looking at Spheal with a soft frown, "Maybe he had a friend wherever you got him from and he misses them. Or maybe he wants to go back home,"

Grace shrugged lightly, "I can't say anything though if he doesn't get better soon, we're going to be sending him back," Grace turned away, "Let's keep going, we're almost to the lecture hall."

Vali frowned at the Spheal one last time before following Grace and Steven.

* * *

Bending down to pet Balto, Vali listened to Steven talk about Steel-type pokemon and what they could do. He was as passionate about Steel-types as he was about stones. That was the passion that was driving him to become a Steel-type master, he wouldn't let anyone dissuade him. The way he spoke was both to the crowd of eager faces and to himself. He answered any question asked of him with almost the same ease as Professor Oak. He eased the fears that some had while also ensuring that they understood why Steel-types weren't trained by just anyone. It was simply awe-inspiring and she felt the anxiety that had been eating at her since she realized that today was Saturday slip away the longer she listened to him. If Steven could do this, she could too.

When Steven finish his lecture, the crowd was a little reluctant to let him go, but eventually dispersed. Steven ran a hand through his hair seemingly exhausted, "That crowd was a bit bigger than I expected."

"You did place in the top three of the last Ever Grande Conference," Grace said with a soft laugh as she walked back into the room, "Even if we do focus on the Indigo League Conference, a lot of Kanto tunes into the other ones," She looked at Vali, "You're up after lunch and I'm sure you'll do just fine,"

Vali offered her a weak smile as the anxiety welled up again, "Y-yeah."

"Shall we go get some lunch?" Steven asked as he walked over to them.

Grace nodded and led the way towards a rather large cafeteria, "The food may not be restaurant quality, but it's better than any trainer meal."

They got their food and some for their pokemon before heading to one of the tables. Vali released everyone and gave them their food before starting to eat her own. Steven released all of his pokemon save for Aggron as the cafeteria's ceiling was a bit too low and the large pokemon didn't need to eat at the moment. From her own findings and Steven's lecture, the Aron-line rarely needed to eat more than twice a week once they evolved from their first state and only twice a month once in their final evolution. It made her plans to get a Aron of her own more realistic even if it finding one would be interesting. Taking a bite of the soup she'd gotten, she paused when a loud gasp sounded from nearby seconds before their table was ambushed by a trio of girls.

Vali recognized them to Grace's children and the future gym leaders of Cerulean City, Lily, Daisy, and Violet. They began to squeal as they shouted, "You're Steven Stone."

Sandshrew abandoned her food and darted over to Vali to cuddle against her legs. Shooting a glare to the triplets, Vali bent down and began reassuring Sandshrew. While she'd been getting better about deal with loud noises and being outside during the day, the small pokemon was still very timid. Once Sandshrew stopped shaking, she picked up the small pokemon as Pikachu carried over the bowl of food that the little one had been eating out of. With a small smile at the display, she got Sandshrew to begin eating again.

"Is that a shiny Sandshrew?!" One of the triplets squealed causing Sandshrew to whimper and hide against her stomach.

Vali shot the trio another glare causing them to flinch back before she began reassuring Sandshrew again. It took a bit longer to get Sandshrew to calm down and return to eating which only made her a little bit more incensed by the trio. Pikachu sparked at them angerly causing them to pale and move back a bit before he began to nuzzle Sandshrew. As soon as Sandshrew had calmed down and resumed eating, she turned to the trio with a frown, "I would prefer it if you didn't screech or make any more of high pitched sound around my Sandshrew. She is still a baby and hasn't been around humans for very long."

"Girls," Grace appeared behind the trio with a frown, "Apologize,"

The three paled and quickly nodded before uttering, "We're like sorry."

"I am sorry that they interrupted your lunch," Grace told Steven and Vali while glancing at Sandshrew in interest, "They get very excited when it comes to famous new comers and they really enjoyed watching your battles, Steven,"

"It is fine," Steven assured Grace before looking at Vali, "Is Sandshrew alright?"

"Yes though I'm going to have to return her after she finishes eating," Vali took a bite of her lunch.

Grace grimaced at that while shooting the triplets an annoyed look that had them shrinking back. The woman looked at Sandshrew curiously, "I haven't seen a shiny Sandshrew in years. Where did you come by her?"

"In Mount Moon a week after she hatched," Vali answered while keeping an eye on Sandshrew and make sure that she was still eating, "She quite literally stumbled upon us when she was looking for food. I caught her after giving her some food without actually noticing that she was a shiny pokemon. Surprised the life out us," She smiled as Sandshrew finished her food and began to snuggle into Vali's lap for a nap, "I haven't started training her yet. I will as soon as Nurse Joy gives the okay,"

Vali petted Sandshrew as she resumed eating her lunch. Grace shook her head lightly, "You must be a lucky person."

Vali snorted softly, "I wouldn't say that, but I wouldn't not say it either. Lady Luck and I have an interesting relationship especially when you consider my paternal families luck," Steven looked as curious as Grace and the triplets, "There's an old proverb from where I come from that pretty much sums it up: 'May you live in interesting times'."

"Well being a trainer already makes life interesting," Steven commented earning a snicker.

"Definitely," Vali grinned before continuing to eat her lunch.

Grace shook her head lightly, "Well, Vali, I hope that my daughter's antics haven't dissuaded you from doing the lecture."

"They haven't," Vali hadn't even been thinking about that, "I just hope they know that our battle tomorrow is going to be rough on them,"

* * *

Vali found herself in the same lecture hall that Steven had spoken in an hour ago. A small crowd of kids under the age of ten and a few adults were gathered in the room. Grace nodded to her once everyone had gotten settled. She took a deep breath as anxiety built up in her stomach, "Hello, Everyone. My name is Vali and I'm going to be telling you about what it's like being a trainer. I'm from Pallet town which means I've had to travel to Viridian City, Viridian Forest, Pewter City, and Mount Moon to get here. I'm ten years old and began my journey a day after my birthday which is on July 31st. Any questions so far?"

It was silent with the kids biting their bottom lips and shifting around. One of the adults raised their hand and she pointed to him. He asked, "Which pokemon did you start with?"

"I started with a Charmander that has recently evolved into a Charmeleon," Vali answered earning a few wide eyed looks and eager whispers exploded from the kids, "I was also given a Growlithe by Professor Oak. The reason being is that Growlithe did not have a trainer and has been very close to me for almost two years after my first visit to the lab. Both of them have nicknames which are Smaug for the Charmeleon and Balto for the Growlithe,"

One of the kids raised their hand and she pointed to her, "Can we see them, Miss Vali?"

"Sure. What's your name, Sweetie?" Vali asked as she took Smaug and Balto's pokeballs from her waist.

"Holly," The girl flushed lightly.

"Well, Holly, I would like to introduce you to my friends," Vali threw the balls up into the air, "Come on out my friends! Someone wants to meet you!"

Smaug appeared with a roar and Balto appeared with a bark. Both landed beside her as she caught their pokeballs, Smaug spat out a burst of embers towards the stone floor while Balto shook himself out. She bent down to rub between Balto's ears while wrapping an arm around Smaug's shoulders. One of the kids whispered, "So cool!"

Vali smiled at them as she stood up, "Smaug is my official starter pokemon, but Balto is the leader of my team. Can anyone tell me why that would be?" One of the kids raised his hand, "And your name, Sweetie?"

"Travis!" The boy puffed up his chest, "And is it because Balto is a male Growlithe?"

"No, but good guess," Vali said with a smile, "Smaug's a male of the Charmander-line which means he would usually participate in the struggle to become the leader of his territory. Now does anyone else have an answer?"

She pointed to one of the girls that raised her hand. The girl grinned, "I'm Iris! Is it because Balto is the elder pokemon?"

"Somewhat, but there's a bit more to it," Vali rubbed the area just under Smaug's horn-like protrusion, "In the wild, Smaug would challenge everyone he could until he ended up beaten down or won the right to lead. It wouldn't matter if he was challenging his elders or not. If they stood in the way of him becoming the leader, he would fight them,"

A boy raised his hand and she pointed to him, "I'm Ben. Is it because Balto has known you the longest?"

"Exactly right," Ben grinned and he was congratulated by his fellows, "First pokemon whether it's your starter or the first one you ever meet, will always end up the leaders of your pokemon unless they're too weak to be the leader. Of course, there will be battles between your pokemon to figure out where they stand and the position of leader can change. In the case of Balto, he asserted his dominance over all the pokemon I have and ensured that they understand that he's the leader. Smaug will listen to Balto without a problem though when he evolves into his final form, he might attempt to take dominance," Vali looked at each of the children and saw the confusion on their faces, "Pokemon change when they evolve. Sometimes, the pokemon won't change much personality wise when they evolve. In other cases, they will have a major change. In the case of the Sandshrew-line, they lose a majority of their timid nature and become fierce battlers. In the male side of the Nidoran-line, they become incredibly aggressive though that is mostly due to the pain they feel upon evolution. Evolution will sometimes be extremely painful for the pokemon that's evolving due to their bodies changing rapidly and taking on an almost completely diffrent form,"

One of the kids raised their hand and she pointed at them, "My name is Mika. Is that why sometimes trainers get hurt by their own pokemon even if they've known each other for years?"

"Yes," Vali nodded lightly as Balto laid down at her feet and Smaug settled down beside him with his tail in his lap, "Sometimes, it can be a training accident or the pokemon accidentally hurting them in anger due to the trainer getting too close to them after evolution. In other cases, the pokemon loses all respect for their trainer for whatever reason. Many times, the pokemon will simply disappear as is the case with the Pidgey-line," Vali saw a few of the kids look surprised, "Pokemon tend to avoid hurting others especially humans if there is no need for it. One thing that will be stressed in the months before you go on your journey is to avoid getting close to your pokemon when they evolve. Some pokemon will be completely fine while others will be in a lot of pain. Wait to approach until either they allow it or they approach you. Keep your voice as steady as possible even if you're really excited, it'll soothe the pokemon's nerves and help them center themselves. In the case of bird pokemon, you need to lock eyes with them and keep your gaze steady while trying not to blink. It's a bit hard, my Pidgey recently evolved into a Pidgeotto and I had to lock gazes with her until she regained her respect for me again," Vali fiddled with Celina's ball, "My advice is to practice by having staring contests,"

Vali pointed to the next kid to raise their hand, "Devin. How come two of your pokemon have a nickname and one doesn't?"

"My Pidgeotto does have a nickname though she didn't want one while she was still a Pidgey," Vali corrected as she felt Celina's ball warm in her hand, "You can't force a pokemon to accept a nickname especially when said pokemon is recently caught. Ask them if they want a nickname or not. Two of my pokemon don't have a nickname at the moment. One is a Pikachu and the other is a Sandshrew. I haven't gotten around to asking my Pikachu if he wanted a name now or not. Sandshrew on the other hand is a bit too young though I will be asking her if she wants one soon enough,"

Vali picked the next kid, "What's your dream?"

"I didn't have a dream when I became a pokemon trainer other than to find pokemon that would become like my family," Vali looked down at Balto and Smaug seeing them stare at her in adoration, "It wasn't until my traveling companion reminded me that I could catch any pokemon I wanted and still become a master. My dream now is to become a fire-type master,"

"Like Blaine?" One of the kids asked earning a nod, "But isn't that hard?"

"It will be a lot of hard work, but that will make it worth it in the end," Vali pointed to Smaug and Balto, "I've already got a good start with two fire-types,"

"You said that you wanted to find pokemon to become like your family. How is that possible?" Ben asked with a frown.

Vali looked at the kids as they peered at her with curious eyes, "During your journey, you'll experience a lot of things that will make or break you. You will not be experiencing them alone as your pokemon will be beside you. It is because of those experiences that you will gain an unbreakable bond with your pokemon and end up seeing them as your family," She paused to gather her thoughts, "Think of it this way," She met each of the kid's eyes before focusing on Ben, "Your pokemon will see you at your best and your worst. They will smell and see your fear, your joy, your anger, your amusement, and everything else. You will take care of them, nurture them, train them, see them at their best, and see them at their worst. They will take care of you, guard you, help you up when you fall, and do their best to ensure you survive. For what might be week or months on end, they will be the only constant non-hostile contact you will have. Because of that, you will come to see them as your greatest allies, closest friends, and a family that will never willingly leave you. That, Ben, is how pokemon can become like your family."

* * *

Vali's lecture ended up taking two full hours. The longer she spoke, the more at ease she became especially once she'd released Pikachu and Celina. She talked about the things she'd wished she had known before leaving Pallet Town, the stuff she wished that she'd had the foresight to bring along, and things like that. She spoke about how much she enjoyed battling, the pokemon that she'd battled, and the battles that she'd seen. She talked about how traveling could be rough at first and that going camping before she became a trainer would have been nice. And she answered the questions they asked if she knew the answer or was comfortable answering them.

Vali's pokemon put up with the kids touching them though Pikachu quickly took shelter on her shoulder when someone tried to pull on his tail. Smaug kept his tail flame out of reach though none of the kids were stupid enough to try and touch it. When it was time for them to leave, the kids whined and groaned before following their parents out. Vali promised her pokemon that she would pamper them especially since Pidgeotto's feathers were a bit sticky due to one of the kid's having some form of candy on their hands. Steven walked over once everyone had left and said, "You did very good, Vali."

"Once I got started, it got easy. I was a bit anxious in the beginning, but managed to push it back," Vali felt proud of herself.

"You guys did good as well," Steven told her pokemon, "You were patient and didn't snap at the kids which is a really good thing. You definitely deserve the pampering Vali's going to give you,"

Each looked more than a little satisfied at that making Vali laugh softly. Grace came into the room and showed them out after Vali returned Pidgeotto, "You might not think you're good at public speaking, but that went really well. I think you really made some of them realize that pokemon aren't tools, but living breathing beings that have emotions too."

"Thanks. I'm actually kind of glad that I agreed to this," Vali admitted with as her cheeks flushed lightly from the praise, "If I can do more stuff like this, being at the League Conference won't be so hard,"

Grace smiled lightly, "Well, you're always welcome to come and give lectures."

"Maybe," Vali returned her pokemon save for Balto, "Though it'll have to be after I finish the badge run,"

"That would be wonderful," Grace beamed at her before looking at Steven, "Now, shall we go schedule your gym battles?"

"That would be a good idea since you never know when other trainers will be coming," Steven said prompting Vali to nod in agreement.

Grace led the way out of the lecture hall towards the front desk where she settled down at the computer, "Now, you have two choices. Individual double battles or a paired double battle. Which do you two want to do?"

Vali and Steven looked at her in surprise. Vali asked, "We're allowed to do that?"

Grace let out a laugh as she nodded, "We only offer it to those with traveling companions. Seeing as Kanto trains majorly travel alone, we don't often have a chance to make that offer."

Steven looked at her curiously, "Do you want to battle together again?"

Vali thought about it for a moment before turning to Grace, "What are the differences between the two?"

Grace let out a laugh before clicking something and turning the screen towards them. Two videos popped up and began to play, "The video on the left is the individual double battle. It has all the rules of a double battle. The gym leaders would use one pokemon each though the amount would increase if the challenger had more than three gym badges," Vali would admit that the first one seemed interesting and would be something she'd have to try out at some point, "The video on the right is the paired double battle. The gym leaders would use two pokemon each alongside the challengers. The regular gym battle rules apply save for the badge rule," Steven looked just as curious as Vali about that, "Even if all the pokemon you use faint, you'll be given a gym badge if you impress us though that's only if at least one of your pokemon still hasn't fainted as per the usual gym battle rules."

Vali and Steven looked at one another. Vali considered all her options before saying, "It wouldn't be a bad idea and it'll give us more practice battling together."

"I don't mind it," Steven turned to Grace, "We'll do a paired double battle,"

"Alright," Grace turned the computer back to her, "How does 2 0'clock in the afternoon two weeks from now sound?"

"That's perfect," Vali said as they would have time to get their pokemon healed up before the battle if they trained and allow their pokemon ample time to be healed after that.

Grace imputed into the computer after clicking her mouse a few times before turning to them with a pleased grin, "There we go. Thank you both again for giving those lectures and Vali, I look forward to seeing how you do against my girls."

"Me too," Vali inclined her head, "See you tomorrow,"

Steven and Grace offered their own goodbyes before they parted ways. Steven and Vali headed towards the pokemon center with him commenting, "We'll have to practice battling together."

"I'm sure we can find people willing to battle us and our pokemon shouldn't have too much trouble. Who are you going to be using?" Vali asked him curiously.

Steven was quiet for a few moments as he considered his options. Lileep wouldn't do well in this battle despite having a grass-typing what with his rock-typing and the fact that he hadn't participated in many battles against non-wild pokemon. Squirtle wasn't a good option either due to the fact he was a water-type and wouldn't do much damage. Granted, it worked in Squirtle's favor as the water-type pokemon they were going up against wouldn't be able to do much damage with their water based attacks. Vali knew he wouldn't be pulling out Aggron as the Steel-types rock-typing would put it at a disadvantage. Claydol's ground-typing would put it at a disadvantage as well. The only ones on Steven current team that would do anything were Metagross and Skarmory. Steven answered her question after a few moments, "Metagross and Skarmory as they are the most familiar with you. I have a few other pokemon that I could use, but as we're doing a paired battle, I would prefer to keep things simple. If I didn't know how often water-type gyms used floating platforms, I would use Aggron regardless of his rock-typing as he has been trained to resist water-type attacks."

"I'm going to need to teach my fire-types how to resist their type disadvantages, aren't I?" Vali realized earning a nod, "They will not enjoy that,"

Vali would have to do the same for all of her pokemon especially once she started meeting more experienced trainers. If she wanted to be a master, her pokemon needed to learn how to deal with type disadvantages and beat them back. There was a reason it took years to become a master of any single type and why many saw the dream of Pokemon Master to be just that, the amount of training you had to put your pokemon through was immense. You had to build up your pokemon, break them down, and build them up again into something stronger. There were no short-cuts to becoming a master, it wasn't just about the pokemon either. You had to train yourself right alongside them physically, mentally, and emotionally. No one without a bond with their pokemon could ever become a master. It wasn't possible especially since the bond between pokemon and trainer was needed to keep said pokemon from turning on you if they lost themselves to blood-lust. The bond also ensured that no matter what, a pokemon of master class wouldn't take another trainer even if it was traded to someone. Master class pokemon were only loyal to the trainer that brought them to that point, it was suicide for anyone else to command them and why older pokemon were never gifted to new trainers.

Thinking of that, Vali glanced down at Balto as he walked beside her. Balto was almost five years old and that showed with how much control he had over his inner flame. By all logic, he shouldn't listen to her or accept her as his trainer despite Professor Oak giving him to her. And yet, he accepted her as his trainer. She wondered if it had to do with the fact they'd known each other for almost two years before dismissing that. Some children grew up with their parents pokemon, yet said pokemon never listened to them unless the parent was around to agree to the orders. Balto listened to her when by all rights, he shouldn't. She looked at Steven as he touched her shoulder and asked, "Are you okay, Vali?"

"Yeah, why?" Vali looked at him in confusion.

"You were frowning while looking down at Balto," Steven explained looking a bit concerned.

Vali ran a hand through her hair, "A thought occurred to me and I'm trying to make sense of it."

Who knows, Steven might be able to answer her about this. Steven's concern turned into curiosity, "What kind of thought?"

"Older pokemon don't listen to new trainers," Vali said as she stopped walking, "It's only during the pokemon's first year of either being born or caught that you can trade them without having any behavioral problems, right?" Steven nodded as Balto looked up at her in confusion, "Balto is almost five years old meaning that by all rights, he shouldn't accept me as his trainer. We may have known each other for two years, but kids who've grown up with their parents pokemon will never get them to listen unless the parent was around to agree to the orders or had given the order to obey the child. Even then, the older pokemon will hesitate as the child is not their trainer," Vali bent down and rubbed between Balto's ears, "So with that in mind, why does he listen to me?"

Steven frowned lightly, "That thought never occurred to me, I always thought that Balto was only a year old if not a bit older. You're right, he shouldn't listen to you," Steven looked at Balto as the Growlithe enjoyed her attention, "Perhaps we should have Metagross give us the answer after we eat dinner and you pamper your pokemon?"

Vali hesitated for a moment. In a way, it would mean invading Balto's privacy, but the answer was something she wanted to know. It would eat at her and drive her crazy until she learned what it was. With that in mind, she said, "Alright, but Balto has to agree to it."

"Of course," Steven agreed and they resumed their walk towards the pokemon center.

* * *

After dinner and a pampering session that left all of her pokemon completely relaxed, Vali grabbed Balto and they headed to Steven's room where Metagross was waiting. Steven patted Metagross' head and the psychic and steel-type approached Balto. Balto sniffed at it for a few minutes before barking and nodding his head. Metagross spoke in her mind, " _The Fire-Dog has agreed to give the information to us, but it isn't a conscious decision on his part. It shall only take a few moments to discover the reason."_

"This won't hurt Balto, will it?" Vali asked earning a metallic groaning sound.

 _"No. We are experienced enough that the Fire-Dog will barely feel out intrusion. As he is curious as well, it will ease most of the minor discomfort caused by our presence in his mind,"_ Metagross replied making Vali sigh in relief, " _We will begin now as his current thought process with allow us to follow it to his subconscious where the answer lingers,"_

Vali settled down on the bed next to Steven as she looked at where Balto was sitting on the ground. A faint out-line surrounded him as he stared into Metagross' eyes. Steven placed a hand on her shoulder, "Everything will be fine, Vali. Metagross learned from my first partner and some of the most experienced Metagross back in Hoenn. They also like you and your pokemon which will only encourage them to be careful."

"I trust them," Vali assured him as the anxiety she felt settled uncomfortably in her stomach, "I just hope that whatever is subconsciously causing Balto to accept me as his trainer isn't bad,"

"I'm sure it isn't bad," Steven looked at Balto, "If it was, Balto would have shaken it off or one of the psychic-types at Professor Oak's lab would have said something,"

"True," It didn't make the anxiety lessen at all.

The out-line of pale blue disappeared and Balto was shaking his head before snorting. He turned to Vali with a yip and bounded over to her. He jumped onto her lap and nuzzled her lightly. Smiling softly, she began scratching behind his ears feeling her anxiety begin to slip away. Steven spoke after a few moments, "Metagross, what did you discover?"

Metagross let out a metallic groaning sound that lasted for a few moments before they turned to the two trainers. Metagross spoke within Vali's mind and she felt a bit startled at how breathless their mental voice sounded, " _The Fire-Dog senses within you an inner flame allowing him to feel kinship with you more so than with any prospective trainers the aged one has ever brought before him. With the knowledge that he has bestowed upon us, we too can sense your inner flame. The intensity that it burns with reveals your will to live despite that which haunts you. It is as intense as the fire-types that we have encountered,"_ Metagross' eyes were focused on her as Steven let out a sharp gasp, " _The bird of flames you encountered...The phoenix Fawkes awakened the flame were it slept within you and stoked it with his tears. The magic within your veins holds pieces of that flame within you."_

Vali lifted a hand and reached under her shirt to pull out the feather that had been the core of her wand. She held it in her hand feeling the warmth of the feather slide through her skin, "D-does this feather have anything to do with that?"

Metagross made an odd humming sound as they came closer, " _It carries sparks of a powerful inner flame. It shields your own inner flame from easy detection. So long as you carry that feather close to your heart, none save for the fire-types we come across should be able to detect it. We will lock this memory away in both our mind and Master Steven's."_

"What about Vali's?" Steven asked speaking for the first time since Metagross had started explaining his findings.

" _Friend Vali's magic acts as an innate shield that will only allow those psychics of pokemon levels to detect even the smallest traces of the inner flame,"_ Metagross gestured to the feather in her hand, " _To most human psychic's, Friend Vali's mind will be warmer than most as is common among of those aspiring to become fire-type masters. To those on the level of pokemon, they will feel traces of the inner flame. They will attempt to trace the bits of inner flame and will find them linked to the feather. So long as she holds onto it, Friend Vali shall be safe. It's place over your heart is best,"_

"Thank you, Metagross," Vali told the large steel and psychic-type, "This eases my mind greatly,"

Metagross made a metallic grunt before moving to the space beneath the window where they settled. Steven smiled lightly, "They're going to be resting," He looked down at the feather, "May I?"

Vali held it out to Steven without a word and watched as he gently picked it up. The feather was long and softer than anything she'd ever touched before. It was a mixture of bright and dark reds with a mix of yellows on the edge that turned into a dark gold color at the very edge. The calamus, the part of the feather that was attached to the bird, and shaft were a dark black that gleamed in the light. Steven stared at the feather in awe and she murmured, "Warm, isn't it?"

"Is it always so warm?" Steven as he returned the feather.

Vali returned the feather to its usual place and inwardly sighed as the discomfort that she hadn't really noticed eased, "Yes though sometimes it is warmer like if it rains or snows. I think that Fawkes can feel the feathers that he gives away on some level though I can't be sure."

"It's an interesting theory," Steven admitted as Vali got up after putting Balto down, "Going back to your room?"

"The lectures we gave reminded me of some theories I had before and even gave me some new ones," Vali turned to him, "I want to get them written down before I forget and plan out some tentative strategies for tomorrow," She paused for a moment before saying, "Thank you, Steven. I probably would've never learned any of this or at least, not this soon,"

Steven smiled at her, "It's no trouble, Vali, and it's really interesting to know. It makes me wonder if you might have a pokemon as your animagus form if you eventually tried to become one."

Vali's lips quirked into a smile as she thought about that, "That would be interesting especially if I could use pokemon attacks, it will be a few years before I actually consider it though," She looked down at Balto as he nudged her, "A lot of things make sense now. The warmth I felt after touching Fawkes for the first time and the fact that I always seemed to be better at fire based magic than anything else," She shook her head, "We're heading to my room. Do you want to practice double battling together after I get done at the gym with the triplets?"

"I don't see why not," Steven replied.

"Well, goodnight then," Vali walked over to the door and pulled it open.

"Goodnight, Vali," Vali heard as Balto walked out of the room and she followed him.

Vali closed the door behind her and headed to her room. Balto looked up at her as they walked and she said, "Looks like I've got a lot to think about and tell everyone back home. Maybe I should write a letter and send it with some gifts. I did promise Ash and Gary that I would send them some souvenirs sometimes," Balto barked, "I'll get my pictures developed too and send them home as well. Maybe take a few group shots too and include some pictures of the city. I could make a scrapbook when I go home or Delia could make one if she needed something to do. Professor Oak would appreciate if I documented everyone's growth especially Sandshrew's. I'll need to put it all together and send it off at the post office before we leave Cerulean."


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997:** **A lot happened in this chapter, but I finished it~ I need some help from you guys. I have a battling tournament planned for Vermilion City, but it will not be on the S.S. Anne seeing as Vali isn't traveling with Ash yet. A template is at the bottom. I need at least six trainers with two pokemon per trainer before my next update. I will update the list on my profile tomorrow.**

 **I love you guys so much! This chapter was prompted by a greedy Charmeleon that bit me, so you get to thank Smaug for it.**

 **Reviews:**

 **frankieu: Glad you liked the chapter though I will admit to having some trouble deciphering your review. I wanted her to be unique and having a fire-typing to her magic just spoke to me. I hope you enjoy the battle and yes, the lecture did help. There isn't really a question about Balto obeying her anymore, Balto will always listen to her since he sees her as pack. I explained why she won't be losing it in this chapter. **

**RHatch89 : Glad you liked it.**

 **Twister60: Thank you.**

 **darkworkangel: Thanks and I thought it would.**

 **comodo50: Thank you. I will admit to not planning on it, but it felt right to have it there and the chapter wouldn't progress until I wrote that out.**

 **Jostanos: Thank you. I will only say that he wasn't given to her two years ago. He became her friend two years ago and Professor Oak just let him be around her since Balto was helping Vali acclimate to the pokemon world better. *Eyes you* Are you reading my notes or something? **

**ThunderClaw03: Thank you and here's the next chapter.**

 **TheBlackSeaReaper: Glad you liked it and I'm happy you think that. I won't be giving this up so long as inspiration hits me. **

**greenespeon1995 : Thank you.**

 **vxgt : Thanks and yes, they are a pairing. **

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**Word count: 18,152**

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 **Edit: Added the template**

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Chapter Six

* * *

As Vali pushed open the doors to the gym, she heard one of the triplets say, "But Mom, why do we have to like watch the runt?"

"Because I have to go join your father at the town hall and Mist can't come," Grace sounded more than a little tired, "Stop calling her a runt!"

"Is something wrong?" Vali asked as she entered the lobby where Grace was standing with her daughters.

An orange haired girl around Ash's age was holding onto Grace's hand and looking at the triplets with a frown. Grace turned with a tense smile, "Vali, you're a bit early."

"Just by a few minutes," Vali looked between the Waterflower family, "I can leave and wait another day to battle if today's a bad day,"

"No, no, today is fine," Grace assured Vali, "I have to go to town hall for a little and Misty can't come," She scowled at her triplet daughters, "But my daughter's seem to think they can't watch her at the same time as battling you,"

Vali looked at the three in confusion, "We're going to just be battling one at a time which leaves at least one of you free to watch her."

"But like we don't want to," The middle one, Lily, groaned.

The fact that she shared the same name as her mother left Vali disgusted. She knew that some people didn't do well with kids, but siblings should protect one another even if they didn't like each other. Looking at Misty, she felt the same protective instincts well up in her that had prompted her to claim Ash as her little brother. Making a decision, she offered, "I can watch Misty if you want," Everyone looked at her in surprise, "I have an adoptive younger brother around her age, so it won't be too hard not to mention kid's her age seem to enjoy watching battles. I can always have my Growlithe, Balto, keep her from getting into trouble."

Grace gained a conflicted expression, "I don't know."

"Balto's been keeping Ash from getting into trouble with his friend Gary for awhile. Keeping one little kid out of trouble shouldn't be too hard," Vali offered Grace a warm smile, "I also happen to like little kids too,"

They were easier to deal with than adults most of the time. Balto yipped from her side drawing Misty's attention. Misty stared at the puppy pokemon in surprise, "A Growlithe?"

"His name's Balto," Vali bent down a bit and held out a hand to Misty, "He's one of my partners. My name's Valkyrie Potter though I usually just go by Vali since it's easier to pronounce," Misty looked at her for a few moments before taking her hand and shaking it earning a light grin, "Would you like to pet him?"

"Can I?" Misty looked up at her mother, "Please Mommy,"

Grace's smile turned less tense as she nodded, "Of course."

Balto walked over to Misty and the child began to pet him. Vali showed her how Balto liked to be scratched and what was the best way to get him to melt into a puddle of contented puppy pokemon. Misty giggled as she said, "He's so warm and soft."

"He's a fire-type and they tend to be really warm which is nice when it gets cold out," Vali smiled as Balto licked Misty's cheek.

Grace made a decision as Misty giggled and shrieked. The woman bent down and placed her hand on Misty's head drawing the orange haired child's attention, "Misty, how would you like Vali and Balto to watch you while I go get some stuff done with your father? Vali's going to battle your sisters which mean you would get to watch a battle, but you have to do what Vali says, okay?"

"Okay, Mommy," Misty grinned at her mother before looking at Vali, "Kick my sister's butts, Vali!"

Vali giggled as she nodded and stood up as Balto removed himself from Misty's arms much to the orange haired child's dismay. Grace stood up, "Thank you and good luck with your battles, Vali. It shouldn't take more than thirty minutes to finish everything up."

"It's no trouble at all, Grace," Vali assured the woman.

Grace hugged Misty and murmured for her to be good before gifting her elder daughters one more glare, "You three better be polite."

"Yes, Mom," The three wince a bit at her glare.

Grace nodded before turning and leaving, "I'll be back!"

Steven walked through the doors not even a moment later and asked, "Where is Grace going?"

"She had to do some stuff with her husband at Town Hall. They should be back in thirty minutes," Vali answered before looking down at Misty as the orange haired child tugged her shirt, "Yes, Misty?"

"Who is he?" Misty asked looking at Steven.

"Misty, this is my traveling partner, Steven Stone. Steven, this is Grace's youngest daughter, Misty," Vali introduced as Steven looked at the orange haired child with a raised eyebrow, "I'm watching her since her sister's don't want to,"

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Misty," Steven bent down and held a hand out to Misty which the orange haired girl took, "I suppose we'll be watching Vali battle your sisters together,"

"Vali'll kick their big butts!" Misty confidently announced.

Misty's sisters scowled, but didn't say anything about their younger sister's words. Instead, Violet said, "Let's like go battle."

* * *

The area that Vali would be facing the triplets in was smaller than she would have thought, but perhaps that was a good thing. There were a total of five floating platforms in the crystal clear in-ground pool of water that took up the middle of the room, Vali didn't smell even the smallest hint of chlorine which was understandable since pokemon had their own way of cleaning the water around them. Water-type pokemon fed off of the bacteria and algae inside the water on top of whatever they usually ate. It was one of the numerous ways that water-type pokemon helped keep the environment healthy.

Steven headed towards the small stands that were set up not far from the pool with Misty and Balto. Steven released Metagross earning a few surprised looks and explained, "I want to make sure we don't get hit with anything. Balto doesn't have much resistance against water-types yet after all."

It was also for the various human's protections since sometimes battles did get out of hand even at their current level. Pikachu in particular was a bit dangerous since he still hasn't fully perfected his Electro-ball and might end up accidentally sending it somewhere he shouldn't. Vali headed towards one of the trainer boxes as Lily headed to the other. Daisy took up the referee's spot while Violet took a seat in the stands. Daisy spoke as they got settled, "This is like where the gym trainers train their pokemon against one another. Do either of you wish to bet any money or anything?"

"No," Vali shook her head lightly as she grabbed Pikachu's pokeball, "This is all about practice after all,"

"Like, the same thing for me," Lily grabbed a pokeball, "Like, one on one okay?"

"Sure," It was her first battle against a water-type pokemon other than Squirtle or that Wingull after all.

"Like this is a one on one battle between like Lily Waterflower of Cerulean City and Like Valkyrie Potter of Pallet Town," Daisy held up a hand, "Like release your pokemon!"

"Like come out and battle Seel!" Lily called out and the sea lion pokemon appeared.

"Come out and battle with me, my friend!" Vali called out and Pikachu appeared earning a few squeals.

Pikachu's cheeks sparked as he looked around. Daisy shook her head, "Like start!"

"Pikachu start out with Thunder Shock," Vali called out earning a soft cry from Pikachu.

Pikachu took a deep breath as he curled in on himself causing electricity to surround him before he released it with a loud cry. Seel let out a cry of pain, but didn't faint. It looked more than a little burned and glared at Pikachu in anger. Lily called out, "Are you like okay, Seel," Seel let out a bark, "Then hit that mouse with some Icy Wind!'

"Pikachu dodge as best you can!" Vali called out as Seel took a deep breath before releasing a frigid burst of wind aimed right at where Pikachu was standing.

Pikachu jumped to a diffrent platform before releasing another Thunder Shock at Seel. Seel dodged most of it which saved it from being knocked out, but its clear that taking even a small dose of Thunder Shock right after being hit by the full power of one was hurting the water-type. Seel shook it off with a bark as Lily called out, "Use Icy Wind again!"

Vali frowned as she called out, "Dodge it-"

Pikachu had already been dodging as she spoke seeing as Seel had released the Icy Wind at a faster pace than before. Pikachu let out a cry of pain as his tail was covered in a thin layer of ice. Vali winced as Misty shouted, "No, Pikachu!"

"Pikachu, knock that ice off with an Iron Tail to the platform!" Vali shouted earning a nod, "When the ice is off, hit that Seel with Thunder Shock again,"

Pikachu's tail lit up with Iron Tail which he drove into the floating platform causing it to shake a bit. The ice was shaken off and Pikachu was charging another Thunder Shock. Lily frowned, "Seel, dodge it as best you can and try Icy Wind again!"

Vali wondered why Lily hadn't tried a diffrent attack yet. Did Lily not train her Seel very much? She pushed away her thoughts as Pikachu released another Thunder Shock and mentally promised herself to teach him Thunder Bolt once he managed to get Electro Ball down as Thunder Shock wasn't as powerful as they needed it to be. Seel let out a pained yelp before falling unconscious from how much electricity had been introduced into it's body. Pikachu panted softly and jumped over the platforms to her as Lily returned Seel and Daisy called out, "Winner Valkyrie Potter and Pikachua."

Lily was teary eyed as she looked at Seel's pokeball. Vali bent down to rub between Pikachu's ears, "Do you want to battle again or take a small break?"

Pikachu thought about it before settling against her legs. Vali nodded before looking at Lily as she said, "G-good battle."

"Lily," Vali might not like the girl very much for scaring Sandshrew but she clearly cared for her Seel, "You might want to think about training Seel a bit more. He has a battling spirit, but his attacks aren't as strong as they could be. See if your mom and dad will let you teach him some TM's or have their pokemon tutor him, you are in a gym after all which means you have access to stuff that us traveling trainers don't until we reach the big time or manage to become part of the League,"

Lily nodded, "I...I might."

Lily went to sit down as Violet got up and went to take Daisy's place as a referee. Daisy took to the trainers box across from Vali and pulled out a pokeball, "Same rules as with my sister?"

"Sure," Vali palmed Celina's pokeball while hoping the battle would go well.

Celina was still getting used to her new name and tended to forget she had a name other than her species one. Vali understood as it had taken her time to get used to being called her actual name rather than 'Girl' or 'Freak' once she first started school. Violet called out, "This is like a battle one on one between Daisy Waterflower of Cerulean and Valkyrie Potter of Pallet Town. Like release your pokemon!"

"Come out and like battle, Shellder!" Daisy called out her pokemon and Vali internally cursed while hoping that Daisy hadn't taught her pokemon any ice-type moves.

"Come out and battle with my, my friend!" Vali released Celina causing the Pidgeotto to appear with a trill as she flew around a bit.

Daisy let out an appreciative murmur, "Now that Pidgeotto is absolutely gorgeous."

Celina practically preened under the compliment earning a smile from Vali. Maybe the triplets weren't so bad after all. Shaking her head lightly, she said, "I pamper my pokemon when they've done especially well or we've just finished traveling to a new city. I pampered them yesterday for putting up with the kids touching them with sticky fingers."

"They like deserved it," Daisy said before shaking her head, "We like have a battle to do. Want to discuss grooming tips later?"

"Maybe another day," Vali said while eyeing the Shellder, "Celina," Celina turned her head towards Vali, "Let's start off with Gust. We need to see what we're dealing with,"

Shellder and their evolved form Cloyster were annoying pokemon to deal with when battling against them. They were generally raised as tanks due to the fact their hard protective shells continually got stronger the more battles they went through. While Vali didn't think Daisy's Shellder had much of a strong shell, she needed to be wary especially if Shellder managed to latch onto Celina. Even weak Shellder could do serious damage to a pokemon's bones, she really didn't want to see what would happen if Shellder managed to get one of Celina's wings. She focused on the battle at hand as Celina kicked up a strong Gust that blew her hair around prompting her to invest in some hair tied and learn how to braid her hair. Shellder closed its shell and did its best to weather the storm allowing Celina to rush forward with Steel Wing. Shellder cried out as the powerful attack slammed into it doing damage despite its protective shell. Daisy frowned as Celina wheeled around for another Steel Wing attack, "Shellder use Supersonic and confuse that Pidgeotto!"

"Celina dodge it with Quick Attack and start up Gust again," Vali had to stop herself from covering her ears as Shellder let out its Supersonic attack.

Celina followed her directions and quickly worked on dodging the attack before send her Gust attack towards Shellder from behind. Shellder closed its shell to weather the storm as best it could which allowed Celina to take another pot shot at it with Steel Wing. Shellder cried out as its shell opened before spitting out a powerful Water Gun at Celina causing the Pidgeotto to screech as she was hit by it. Thankfully, the wing that got hit was the one still covered by Steel Wing meaning that the damage wasn't that bad. Daisy called out, "Icicle Spear!"

"Use Quick Attack to speed up your dodging!" Vali called out as Shellder began spitting out sharp chunks of ice that would really hurt if they hit especially since Celina was a flying-type, "Use Gust to send that ice back at Shellder!"

Vali decided that she was going to work on adding to Celina's move pool. She had a limited one compared to her teammates save for Sandshrew who hasn't even started training yet. She watched as Celina became a blur of speed with her Quick Attack working to dodge the sharp shards of ice before reappearing as Shellder took a deep breath. Just as Shellder released its next volley of Icicle Spear, Celina used Gust. The two attacks battled for a few moments before Celina managed to put more power behind her attack allowing her to over power the Icicle Spear and send it right back towards Shellder. Shellder got hit by its own ice for a few seconds before managing to close its shell. Celina repeated her actions from before while empowering her Steel Wing with Quick attack which was powerful enough to send Shellder flying into the psychic wall Metagross had put up. It slid down the wall into the water and didn't rise up prompting after a few minutes prompting Violet to call out, "Winner Valkyrie Potter and Pidgeotto."

Daisy to return Shellder with a sigh, "Nice job, Shellder."

Celina flew over to Vali and landed with a soft trill. Vali congratulated her before looking at Daisy, "Your Shellder's pretty good. If you worked on getting his defense up and his stamina up, he could just weather out attacks and strike when his opponent it tired."

"True," Daisy looked at her pokeball in contemplation, "Like thanks for the battle and the advice,"

"No problem," Vali replied as Daisy headed to the stands while Violet took her place and Lily took to the referee position, "Which one of you wants to battle next?"

Pikachu and Celina talked to one another for a few minutes before Celina took to the floating platform in front of Vali. She bent down and held out an arm to Pikachu. He took her unspoken offer and climbed onto her arm before jumping to her shoulder. She stood up as Violet called out, "Same rules as with my sisters, okay?"

"Sure," Vali felt like she had a good enough grasp of water-type pokemon though she would definitely be going out to challenge more people with water types just to keep practicing.

Lily announced, "This is like a one on one battle between Violet Waterflower of Cerulean and Valkyrie Potter of Pallet Town."

"Like come out and battle, Horsea!" Violet called out and Vali looked at the little sea horse-like pokemon with interest.

Horsea didn't often get sent to the lab or come near the coast of Pallet town which meant Vali hadn't seen any before save for in books. They were absolutely adorable and turned into real powerhouses once they finally evolved into their final evolution. While she was going to be a fire-type master, she appreciate water-type pokemon for their ability to live in parts of the world that no other pokemon could. They were a lot like fire-type pokemon in that regard which only helped her appreciate them even more. Looking at the Horsea, she hoped that she'd be able to catch one at some point. Vali looked at Violet and asked, "Where did you get that cutie from?"

"My dad's Kingdra ended up laying an egg and I happened to be the first one he saw when he hatched," Violet explained with a warm smile directed to her pokemon who let out a happy trumpet and danced a bit in the water, "He's a playful little guy,"

"I can tell," Vali felt anticipation spark inside of her and knew that this battle would be diffrent from the others especially since Horsea was firmly based in the water, "This is going to be so interesting,"

Violet grinned at her before calling out, "Like Horsea, start things off with Water Gun!"

"Get up into the air and dodge it!" Vali called out earning a trill from Celina, "Use Gust when you can,"

Vali was going to look into more long range attack for Celina. Celina shrieked as Horsea clipped her left wing causing her to fall slightly though she managed to regain her altitude. She inwardly cursed a bit knowing that they were now on a time-limit. Celina's wings were going to get tired and flying with a damaged wing wasn't a good idea. Celina was still moving well though the pain her wing was causing her would soon change that. Celina released a Gust that caused Horsea to cry out before he ducked into the water which was rough due to the winds buffeting it. Looking at that, she thought about one of the most difficult moves for the Pidgey-line to learn and inwardly grinned as a plan formed in her mind. Even if Celina couldn't learn it fully in time for the gym battle, it would still help though she was definitely going to have to talk to Steven about her plan.

Celina landed on a floating platform to give her wings some rest while eyeing the water carefully. Despite being a first-level water-type, Horsea were powerful little creatures due to the dragon-typing hiding within their cells. Whereas Seel and Shellder weren't as well trained, Horsea clearly had been training hard. Violet's smiling face and the love she bore for Horsea made that quite clear. Violet called out, "Water Gun again, Horsea!"

Vali scanned the water seeing a blur fly towards her side of the pool, "Celina, he's coming behind you!"

Vali had barely gotten those words out by the time Horsea had jumped out of the water and shot a powerful Water Gun towards Celina's back. Celina let out a shriek as she was sent stumbling forward a bit before she shot back into the air. She was shivering both out of pain and due to the water soaking her feathers. Vali eyed her pokemon as Violet called out, "Aurora Beam, Horsea!"

Horsea had to have the Swift Swim ability if he was this fast in the water. Vali tried to figure out a way to counter it as she shouted, "Quick Attack as many times and as fast as you can. Don't give them a clear target!" She would need to see if any of Steven's pokemon knew Double Team and see if they could teach her pokemon it since it would make situations like this easier, "Steel Wing if he leave the water!"

Celina disappeared into a blur that darted around the room as Horsea lept out of the water and shot off a beam of multicolored light. Thanks to Celina's swift movements, she managed to get out of the way of the beam and followed Vali's orders to slam into Horsea with a Quick Attack powered Steel Wing. They were so going to figure out a name for the trick and make good use of it. Horsea let out a surprised pained cry as him was slammed into by the metallic colored blur and sent flying into the psychic wall. Horsea slid into the water though quickly rose up with a glare aimed towards Celina as Violet called out, "Horsea, are you okay?" Horsea let out a determined trumpet, "Good. Now let's play some hit and run!"

Horsea disappeared into the water and Vali realized that he was going to be playing sniper with Celina as his target. Note to self: Pikachu should be in charge of any battles against water-type pokemon that used such tactics. Vali called out, "Keep up the same tactic as before, Celina."

Celina looked at her in confusion for a few moments before realizing that Vali was speaking about her. That confusion cost Celina and she was sent flying via Water Gun to her side by Horsea, she let out a shriek of pain, but managed to keep herself from plummeting into the water. She shook herself before returning to her normal height and began using Quick Attack. Horsea continued to take pot-shots at Celina with a mixture of Water Guns and Aurora Beam. Eventually, it proved too much for the Pidgeotto and she ended up fainting when a Water Gun slammed into her stomach. Returning Celina before she could hit the water or one of the floating platforms, Vali listened as Lily called out, "Winner Violet Waterflower and Horsea."

As Violet and Horsea celebrated, Vali felt a bit numb though she shook it off as she murmured, "You did your best, Celina. This isn't the end and we're going to get better, I promise."

Pikachu nuzzled her looking a bit disappointed. Vali headed towards the stands along with Violet and Lily as Misty looked at her in shock, "Y-you lost?"

"It happens from time to time, but it doesn't mean we're going to give up," Vali told the orange haired child as Balto raced over to her and began to sniff at the fingers holding Celina's pokeball with a whine, "It means we've got a lot of work to do. Celina's move pool is too small and that's what bit our butts this time. It doesn't help that she's still getting used to her new limits as she has recently evolved," Vali put Celina's pokeball back in its place on her belt and began to pet Balto, "There's also the fact that we weren't prepared for an opponent like Horsea, but there's always next time,"

"So you're not mad about losing?" Misty asked earning a small smile.

"I am a bit mad, but not at Violet, Horsea, or Celina. I'm mad at myself for getting a bit cocky and not thinking about the problems that ended up being shown to me during the battle," Vali looked at Violet and nodded, "I need to thank you for your help. We still have a lot of work to do before Steven and I's gym battle,"

Violet smiled at her and held out a hand which Vali took, "Like no problem, Vali. You showed us all that we need to train harder especially since we're inheriting the gym in two years. Horsea and I may have won that one, but that doesn't mean anything in the long run."

They shook hands and Misty looked confused, "Why are you shaking hands?"

"It's to show that the battle was good and to make sure there aren't any hard feelings," Violet answered looking at her little sister, "It's common courtesy,"

Vali smiled at Misty and asked, "Did you enjoy watching the battles?"

"Mhmm," Misty nodded with a bright grin, "They looked so cool, but how come you didn't just have Pikachu zap them all?"

"Type advantage doesn't always mean you'll win a battle," Vali answered earning a confused look, "It all comes down to strategy and the fact that Pikachu isn't the strongest pokemon out there. He's strong, but he's still young which means he has some growing to do. Your parents probably have tons of strategies to counter electric types like Pikachu which means we have to keep training as hard as possible before the gym battle,"

Lily spoke up, "How about we head to the pokemon center and get our pokemon checked out?"

With that said, they headed to the pokemon center where Nurse Joy took their pokemon back to be checked out.

* * *

Misty looked at Vali curiously as they settled down in the lounge area after she released Smaug to join Balto. Due to the presence of other trainers, she was keeping Sandshrew in her pokeball for now. Glancing at Misty as she took out her pokedex to write down the ideas she'd gotten during the battles, she asked, "What's up, Misty?"

"Why did you become a trainer, Vali?" Misty asked her curiously.

Vali hummed softly as the triplets looked at her curiously, "Well, I didn't originally want to become a pokemon trainer."

Misty looked at her in shock, "Really? Why?"

Vali shrugged lightly, "It never really appealed to me. Oh, the battles and contests were interesting, I loved watching them on TV and seeing them at the corral when traveling trainers came by to see Professor Oak," She continued typing on her pokedex, "It wasn't until day I went to the lab. I can't remember the exact reason I was there, but I ended up seeing a trainer with a three legged Ninetales..."

The four Waterflower sisters listened to Vali as she told the story with wide eyes. She didn't notice their expressions until after she finished the story and was somewhat surprised by them. Was she really that good of a story teller? Mentally shaking her head, she looked at Misty as the orange haired girl asked, "If that's your reason for becoming a trainer then what's your goal?"

Vali looked at Balto and Smaug as she grinned, "Short term is complete my badge run. Long term is to become a fire-type master. I have always had a bond with fire-types that no one could really explain and eventually thanks to Steven here, I finally decided to become a fire-type master."

"But you have other pokemon," Misty pointed out.

"You'll find that many pokemon master's have pokemon that aren't their favorite type pokemon," Steven explained earning a surprised look, "I'm raising a Squirtle and another pokemon that isn't a steel-type despite the fact I want to become a Steel-type master. When it comes to pokemon and trainer, it doesn't matter what type they are so long as the bond between you is strong,"

Vali added on, "One day, you'll find pokemon that just speak to you. It'll be like there is something about them that screams to you that they're meant to be yours. When that happens, it won't matter what type of pokemon they are, what gender, what nature, or anything like that. All that will matter to you is that they're yours and you're theirs," She pointed at Balto who was rough housing with Smaug on one of the fire-proof mats set up all over the room, "Take Balto for example. He's almost five years old and I met him a little under two years ago. Based on what's known about captured pokemon, we shouldn't have the bond that we do and yet, we do. He's mine just as much as I am his."

Misty wasn't the only one looking at her in shock. Balto looked away from where he was pinning Smaug down after hearing his name and Vali held out a hand to him. He got off of Smaug and raced over to her. She began petting him as Smaug slowly made his way over to her. Violet commented, "You'd never know it at first glance."

* * *

Grace and her husband Walter came to the pokemon center as they were picking up their pokemon. Misty let out a squeal and called out, "Daddy!"

"Hello, my precious pearl," Walter bent down to pick up his daughter.

Walter had dual colored hair with the top being a whitish pink color and the bottom being a dark almost black blue. He had striking hazel eyes that glittered with happiness as he looked his youngest daughter. Grace smiled at her husband and youngest daughter before looking at Vali, "She didn't cause any trouble, did she?"

Vali shook her head lightly, "Not at all, she was a very well behaved kid."

"Vali won against Lily and Daisy!" Misty announced with a grin, "It was awesome, but she lost against Violet,"

"Which just showed me that we have a lot of work to do before the gym battle," Vali said earning a smile from Grace and she turned to look at the triplets, "Thanks again for the chance to battle with you. I needed that,"

"Like no problem," The three said with grins.

Walter spoke causing Vali to look at him, "Thank you for watching over Misty, Miss Potter."

"It's no problem and please call me Vali," Vali smiled warmly at him, "It was a lot of fun. She's a good kid,"

"We should get going if we want to be ready in time for the show," Grace said earning a few nods from her family, "Vali, Steven, you two are welcome at the gym any time,"

Vali nodded as Steven said, "Good luck with your show."

With that, the Waterflower family left and Steven looked at Vali, "So ready to work on our double battling together?"

"Yup," They started heading towards the practice field, "Hey, Steven, do you think Skarmory can help Celina learn some of the moves that I have in mind? Her move-pool is far too small. If I want her to really shine, I need to widen her move-pool,"

"I don't see why not though you'll have to let me look over your notes," Steven said earning a nod.

"It's going to be a long two weeks for Celina and the others," Vali wasn't about to let any of her pokemon slack off even if they weren't participating in the battle, "But it'll be worth it in the end,"

* * *

Vali set her pokemon on a very strict schedule for the next two weeks that was adapted from one of Steven's training schedules. They all got up around seven in the morning for a morning run/jog through the city until eight when they returned to get ready for the day. Breakfast was a large healthy meal full of berries, vitamins, and other healthy stuff. After that, they would start working on their physical abilities until noon. On some days, they worked on getting faster and increasing their stamina. On other days, they worked on getting their bodies more powerful. At noon, they would eat a filling lunch with oran berries to regain their strength. After that, they would work on either getting their attacks stronger or learn new ones until a quarter to five. They would spend all the time they had before dinner which was at six cooling down and recovering from their day. After a dinner of healthy food, they would watch videos or think of strategies together.

Every two days, Vali had them take a break to relax and recuperate. Depending on the day, Vali and Steven would go out and find people to double battle against. It wasn't all work though, Vali made sure they thoroughly enjoyed their time in Cerulean. It was a city rich with history and had unique activities you could only do there. They went to some of the water-shows held at the gym, watched the various water based competitions going on, and got to enjoy a minor festival that Cerulean threw every year in honor of the water-type pokemon that helped the city survive.

Vali ended up taking some swimming lessons at the gym as she wasn't that good of a swimmer. Pikachu and Balto joined her. Pikachu joined her both because it was a good skill to have and because it would help him get even faster. Balto was doing it for the same reasons, but also because it would help with his resilience to water. She hadn't been sold on allowing Balto to join in on the class until one of the local Officer Jenny came in with her own Growlithe partner who seemed to absolutely love the water. It was apparently a training exercise that the Jenny family had developed to ensure that their favored partners would be able to work through all kinds of conditions.

Steven and Vali both ended up sitting in on some of the classes that the gym held on water-type pokemon. The classes were fun, interactive, and highly educational for both trainers. She ended up finding out things about water-type pokemon that not even Professor Oak knew when she mentioned some of the facts over the phone when she was checking in on Eevee's progress. Surprisingly, her call had prompted Professor Oak into contacting all the Kanto region gyms about their discoveries and ended up helping the Professors research. Because of this, Professor Oak asked her to contact him as often as she could about the interesting things she learned during her journey which she was happy to agree to do.

* * *

Vali beamed as Pikachu correctly executed Electro Ball for the first time and pulled him into a gentle hug as she congratulated him. They had a week before the gym battle and her pokemon were working tirelessly to become better. Celina's loss seemed to light a fire under their butts that made them try harder than they had before. Balto had recently finished learning Fire Fang and was working on Reversal when he wasn't assisting Smaug. Celina had managed to figure out how to do Aerial Ace through using Quick Attack and tackle together. She wasn't exactly sure how that worked, but was happy that Celina had managed it. At the current moment, the Pidgeotto was working on Swift which was coming along greatly and Twister which wasn't going so well since Celina didn't really know how to feel out the dragon-type energy she needed to use for the attack.

Vali let go of Pikachu as she said, "Good job, Pikachu. Now, you get to choose between Thunder Wave and Thunder Bolt as the next move you learn. Which one do you want to try?" She held out her pokedex to him and he pointed to Thunder Bolt with a determined look on his face, "You sure?" Pikachu nodded, "Alright, but that means you're going to be working on charging up your electricity longer and make it stronger too. I'll see if Nurse Joy wouldn't mind you getting some extra electricity from the feeding port. For now, I want you to work on charging up Electro ball faster. While you've finally got it, you need to charge it faster and put a bit more power behind it. Try holding it after you charge it up, it'll probably help you get Thunder Bolt down faster."

Pikachu nodded and darted off to go do as she asked. Vali turned to go inside before pausing and returning Sandshrew deciding to see what Nurse Joy had to say about her. Steven looked up from where he was explaining something to Squirtle who looked more like a Wartortle every day, "Vali, where are you going?"

"To see Nurse Joy about allowing Pikachu get some extra electricity from the feeding port seeing as he's decided to learn Thunder Bolt," Vali said earning a nod from him, "I'm also going to see how much longer until Sandshrew will be ready to start training," She looked at Squirtle, "Are you going to see if you can get him to evolve today?"

Squirtle grinned at her as Steven said, "Yeah. He's so close that it isn't even funny."

"I bet he's uncomfortable too," Vali said earning a wince from Squirtle, "Good luck, Squirtle. I can't wait to see how you look as a Wartortle,"

Vali headed inside and passed by a few trainers before reaching the lobby where a small line of trainers had formed. She got behind them and took out her pokedex to make waiting go by faster. She opened up on the page she'd made for Pikachu and checked off Electro Ball before putting down Thunder Bolt with Thunder Wave under it with a question mark. She saved that before moving on to each of her other pokemon adding their own learned moves along with the ones they were attempting to learn. She was surprised when a notification appeared on her dex telling her to call Professor Oak as soon as possible. Deciding to do that after she got finished with Nurse Joy, she closed her pokedex after saving everything and found herself in front of the desk. Nurse Joy smiled at her, "Hello, Vali. How can I help you?"

"I want to get Sandshrew checked out to see how much longer it'll be before I can train her," Vali answered as she unhooked Sandshrew's ball from her belt and put it on the tray Nurse Joy set up, "I also need to know if Pikachu could take some extra electricity from the feeding port. He's trying to learn Thunder Bolt,"

"I don't see why not especially since there aren't many electric types around the center," Nurse Joy picked up the tray, "Just make sure he knows that he can't take all of it," Vali nodded already planning on it, "I should only need fifteen minutes to see where Sandshrew stands. Has she started digging yet?"

"Not just yet, but by the burrowing instincts and the fact she's been playing with dirt, I'd say it won't be too long before she does," Vali answered earning a grin, "I'm going to have one of my older pokemon show her later on," Nurse Joy let out a soft laugh, "Thanks again, Nurse Joy,"

"It's no problem, Vali," Nurse Joy said before shooing her away.

Vali headed to the phone booths and decided to use a private one again having a feeling the Professor would prefer it if what he had to say was as urgent as the message said. One of Professor Oak's aids answered almost immediately after she dialed the number. It was one of the older male aids, Jacob Warner, that answered. Jacob looked at her in relief, "That was quick, Vali."

"I was already inside the center getting Sandshrew checked out," Vali replied with a shrug, "So what does the Professor need me for?"

"I'm not quite sure, but its very urgent. I'll put you through now," Jacob told her earning a nod.

Vali felt a sting of worry as the screen turned grey. Professor Oak answered moments later, "Vali!'

"Hey, Professor," Vali greeted the rather harried looking old man, "Is something wrong? I tried to call as soon as I could,"

"You're still in Cerulean, yes?" Professor Oak asked.

"Yeah, we still have a week before our gym battle," Vali looked at him in concern, "Why?"

Professor Oak let out a relieved sigh, "Good. I need you to go to a friend of mine's house, Bill. He was recently having some trouble with a group of wild pokemon that I'm not sure which species seeing as he wasn't quite clear."

Vali eyes widened and she asked, "Wait, Bill as in Bill Sonezaki? The one that helped create the pokemon storage system and is assisting in making the pokedex even better. The heir to the Sonezaki fortune and the one that's supposed to take over Silph co. That Bill?"

What could Vali say? Bill Sonezaki and the entire Sonezaki family were very well known throughout the world. They have been at the head of pokemon related item development since they created the first successful capture device. Sure Devon corp. and the Stone family were just as well known, but the Sonezaki family had been in the business far longer. There was also the fact that Kanto prided itself on being the home country of the Sonezaki family, it was kind of hard not to know about them. Professor Oak let out a chuckle as she flushed lightly, "Yes, that Bill. Anyway, I've been in contact with Bill quite a bit recently due to his special interest in the Eevee-line and the fact he knows the most about them outside of the really obscure breeders. I've tried contacting him during the last few days, but he hasn't been answering which worries me greatly especially since he isn't a pokemon trainer. Would you and Steven mind going to check up on him?"

Vali thought about it carefully before nodding, "Sure especially since Steven is trying to get Squirtle to evolve and will enjoy the chance at battling. It's an easy day for our teams anyway. Do you want me to have Steven call you once we've checked on Bill?"

"Yes, Vali," Professor Oak nodded lightly, "Thank you. I'll send the coordinates to where Brill's current residence is. I hope I don't have to tell you not to talk about it,"

"I can keep my mouth shut, Professor," Vali grinned at him before asking, "How is Eevee?"

"Almost completely physically healed," Professor Oak answered causing her to gap at him in shock as her pokedex began to beep, "I know. I'm as surprised as you are, but it's truly happening. I might actually be able to send Eevee to you very soon,"

"Okay," Vali shook her head lightly, "Tell him that I said 'Hi' and that I'm glad he's doing so well,"

"I will," Professor Oak offered her a light smile as a click sounded, "There we are, you just need to follow those coordinates exactly. See you later, Vali,"

"See you, Professor," Vali answered before the call ended.

* * *

After explaining the situation to Steven, they gathered their pokemon with Nurse joy returning Sandshrew saying, "She should be fine to start light training in a few days."

Steven put the coordinates into his pokenav and commented, "It'll take us about two hours to get there and that if we don't get challenged by trainers."

"That's not too bad," Vali said as they started heading to the northern area of Cerulean where Nugget Bridge sat, "Who knows, we might see some interesting pokemon or get some double battle practice,"

"True enough," Steven glanced at her, "Are you okay, Vali? You looked a bit startled when you came back,"

Vali was quiet for a few moments before saying, "Professor Oak says that Eevee's healing really fast. He might be able to send Eevee to me very soon."

"That's good news," Steven grinned slightly before it dropped when he noticed she wasn't smiling, "Is something wrong?"

Vali ran a hand through her hair, "Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that Eevee's doing so well and can't wait to see him fully healed. I just wasn't expecting it to happen so soon. It's hard to wrap my mind around the fact that I'm going to have him with me so soon," She looked at Steven with a sigh, "I just...I still don't know if I'm going to be able to help him."

Steven offered her an encouraging smile, "I'm sure you'll manage it, Vali. If you need any help, you just need to ask."

Vali smiled slightly and nodded, "Thank you, Steven-Wow," She stared at the bridge in front of them, "No wonder it's called Nugget Bridge."

Nugget bridge was the exact same shade of gold as the golden nuggets it was named after. The bridge was sturdy and hovered over top of the water on strong supports that were sunk deep into the mud below the water line. The river below was rushing quickly past and there was no doubt that if someone fell of the bridge, they would be swept away immediately. Before the bridge had been constructed, Route 24 and Route 25 had been inaccessible by all save for those with a flying-type able to support them or an extremely strong water-type. It was only four years ago that Nugget Bridge had been finished thus allowing everyone to cross. Of course, you had to be a pokemon trainer or have some form of protection in order to be able to cross into Route 24 and beyond due to the strong wild pokemon that had pretty much been left unchecked. As it was, it had only been within the last two years that any trainer with at least one badge could cross the bridge. The League didn't want any unprepared newbie trainer getting themselves or their pokemon killed.

Vali and Steven were stopped by a pair of Ace trainers wearing a red, white, and black uniform showing that they had at least two years under their belts. Both looked to be about twenty years old. One had an Electabuzz and the other had a sleepy looking Vileplume beside them. The Electabuzz peered at them curiously as its trainer, the male Ace trainer asked, "Badge Cases?"

Vali and Steven both took out their cases allowing the two Ace trainers to get a good look at their Boulder badges. The female trainer smiled, "You two are good to go."

"How long until they won't need to check badges anymore?" Vali asked the two curiously as she put her case away.

"Another two years though some parts of the Routes will be inaccessible by anyone below one badge due to there being a colony of Venonat and Venomoth taking up residence," The male Ace trainer answered with a shake of his head, "They may be fairly docile, but they're violent buggers when provoked,"

"Don't forget about the Ekans that decided to set up shop on Route 25," The female Ace trainer shuddered.

"You two be careful, ya here," The male Ace Trainer said, "Those Ekans are pretty dangerous with a few of them on the verge of evolving into Arbok. With the fact that it's getting closer to Fall, they're even more agitated than usual,"

"Noted. Thanks for the information," Vali said as Steven and she began heading over the bridge.

As they walked on the bridge that sat in the middle of the seemingly tranquil river, Steven commented, "I do believe we have an answer as to what might be bothering Bill."

"Foul tempered poison types, what fun," Vali snarked causing Steven to chuckle, "Though it does turn out to be them, I could see if my ability to talk to snakes transfers over to snake-like pokemon,"

Steven looked contemplative, "That sounds like a good idea, but I'm going to have Metagross protect us with a psychic field just in case."

"I wasn't going to suggest otherwise," Vali laid a hand on her left side where the overly aggressive male Nidoran's poison sting had hit her and left the very small cluster of five perfect circle indents in her skin, "I do not feel like seeing the difference between an Nidoran's poison and an Ekans',"

Steven grimaced slightly at her comment, but didn't say anything. Vali winced a bit since that meant he still hadn't got over the fact she'd been hit by those needles. She knew it would be awhile before he let it go especially since she probably would've felt the same if he'd been the one to get hit. Guilt was hard to get rid of especially if you genuinely thought you had done something wrong.

* * *

Three hours later, they managed to reach the coordinates that Professor Oak had given them. They had run into no less than five trainers though only one pair wanted to double battle. Squirtle still hadn't evolved, but it wouldn't be long until it happened. Much like with Smaug, the little turtle needed something a bit more to push him into actually evolving. As soon as they arrived, it was easy to hear the the loud hissing and rattling of Ekans. Vali forced back a shiver as she was reminded of the basilisk and focused on the sounds of the hisses. Eventually, the hisses faded away into white noise as the sound of five distinct voices echoed through the air. A hand on settled on her shoulder making the fire-type trainer flinch a bit before she turned her head. Steven looked at her in concern, "You froze up a bit. Can you understand them?"

Vali nodded and held up a hand to stall Steven's questions as she listened to the voices. Eventually, she tuned them out as she said, "Bill apparently disturbed all their nests doing something. They're annoyed with him and want to show him why pissing them off is a bad idea."

Steven blinked slightly before asking, "Did you just sum that up or did they actually say that?"

"Summed it up. The accent attached to their voices is a bit hard to decipher, but I managed it," Vali shook her head, "You might want to have Metagross and Claydol restrain them with psychic,"

Steven offered her a curious look before releasing both his psychic types, "Restrain the Ekans that are here."

"There should be five of them," Vali offered to the two.

Soon enough, Metagross and Claydol had the five Ekans restrained in the air. Vali had Steven go check on Bill while she focused on the snake-like pokemon again. During the time that it took Steven to come back with a harried looking Bill Sonezaki, Vali had managed to start understanding the Ekans better. Bill beamed at Metagross and Claydol, "Oh thank you four for saving me! I thought I was going to be a goner."

"Mr. Sonezaki, if I may ask, what did you do to cause their nests to be disturbed?" Vali asked making the scientist blink slightly in surprise.

Bill flushed lightly, "I was working on a new pokemon transporting device that would allow the trainer to transfer their pokemon as they liked via pokedex. The machine I was making ended up blowing up quite spectacularly."

"So the vibrations caused by the explosion was what disturbed them," Steven theorized while looking at the Ekans in understanding.

"Perhaps you should try to make your lab vibration proof before doing stuff like that when you have vibration sensitive pokemon living around you," Vali suggested before looking back at the Ekans who were starting to calm down a bit.

"Maybe you're right," Bill looked at the Ekans and walked over before apologizing for disturbing them.

The Ekans calmed down even more though the words they hissed at Bill were particularly vulgar. Vali had to bite back snickers as she listened to them. She was definitely keeping Sandshrew in her pokeball since there was no need for the little one to learn such words. Bill invited them inside his cottage after Steven had Metagross and Claydol release the Ekans into the forested area. As they followed after Bill, Steven asked, "What were you snickering about?"

"Those Ekans were really foul mouthed," Vali explained earning a curious look, "I'll explain later,"

Bill's cottage was bigger than Vali had first thought and messier than Professor Oak's lab on a bad day. Vali shook her head lightly as she looked at the mess before looking at Bill as he said, "I don't exactly have much to offer in the way of refreshments save for some tea that will take time to make."

"That's fine, we were sent by Professor Oak to check on you," Vali explained earning a surprised look, "He's a bit worried seeing as you haven't been answering his calls,"

"Oh dear, I should call him up," Bill ran a hand through his messy greenish black hair, "I hope there weren't any complications with that Eevee he's taking care of,"

"From what the Professor told me, Eevee's almost completely physically healed," Vali said making Bill jerk a bit and turn to look at her, "I was the one that rescued Eevee and Professor Oak has been keeping me posted,"

"So you're Valkyrie Potter," Bill grinned at her, "I've been wanting to meet you and your Godfather since I learned about you two,"

Vali had to take a step back since that look in Bill's eyes reminded her far too much of Hermione's when the girl had found a new subject to research. She ended up backing into Steven who said, "Bill, why don't you go make some tea while we call the Professor to tell him that you're alright."

"Of course," Bill nodded rapidly.

Vali moved away from Steven, "Sorry."

"It's fine though why did you react like that?" Steven asked with a raised eyebrow as he took out his pokenav.

"He had the same look in his eye that my friend Hermione did right before she begins to devour books on a new subject," Vali wondered how Hermione and Ron were doing since they had probably started what would have to be their fifth year of Hogwarts by now.

* * *

After confirming that Bill was fine and talking about what had happened, Professor Oak had ended the call due to the fact one of the Rhyhorn were apparently throwing a fit. Vali let out a small groan earning a curious look from Bill as he walked out of his kitchen carrying a tray of tea, "Something wrong?"

"I fear that my adoptive little brother and Professor Oak's grandson have had an unfortunate encounter with a Rhyhorn at Professor Oak's lab," Vali was definitely going to be calling home and asking about it once they got back to Cerulean, "They're some of the most adventurous five year old boys I know, but sometimes the stuff they pull is particularly bone headed,"

Bill let out a chuckle, "Boys will be boys. I was an adventurous lad at that age as well though I will admit that I've never actually tried playing with a Rhyhorn."

Vali took the offered tea and drank some immediately humming softly in pleasure, "Cardamon Cinnamon tea. I haven't had a good cup since leave Pallet Town."

"It's one of the things that keep me going," Bill smiled looking pleased, "If I may ask, have they made any discovering in how you ended up in this world?"

"No and I highly doubt they will unless they manage to get a hold of one of the Sinnoh legends," Vali said with a sigh, "I will admit that I'm curious about the hows and whys, but I actually prefer this world. Its so much cleaner and has pokemon,"

Bill looked at her in interest, "Would you answer some questions I have on your old world?"

"Sure though I will admit to not knowing a lot about it," Vali smiled weakly at him.

* * *

By the time Bill had finished asking his questions, it was almost sunset and Vali's brain felt like mush. While she had been pleasantly surprised by how much she actually knew, Bill had made her think really hard. As they were leaving Bill's house, he'd given both Steven and Vali his number in hopes of staying in contact while looking a little disappointing by the fact that Vali didn't have a communications device. While the pokedex could accept messages, it was only from the regional professor and the League.

Vali grimaced as she looked at the sky, "Well it looks like we should get going if we're to make it back to Cerulean tonight."

"We can use Claydol to get there," Steven said earning a surprised look, "Unlike Metagross, Claydol instinctively learn Teleport upon evolution,"

"Has Claydol practiced it?" Vali knew that teleportation outside of the Abra-line/Ralts-line was rough and often times left many trainers sick.

Steven nodded lightly, "I've made sure of it. While it isn't as smooth as the Abra-line or Ralts-line, it's not very jarring, so long as the distance isn't very great. Since Cerulean isn't that far from here, we shouldn't have any bad side-effects."

Vali sighed in relief, "Alright then. It's better than having to traverse Route 25 and Route 24 while its getting dark."

Steven released Claydol and had her grab onto the large pokemon as he did the same. Claydol glowed lightly and Vali felt her stomach drop a bit as her vision promptly turned upside down while her feet seemed to leave the ground for a few moments. When her feet hit the ground again, she let go of Claydol and stumbled back as her head began to spin. Steven steadied her quickly, "Are you okay?"

"Give me a few moments," Vali closed her eyes, "That definitely wasn't like being teleported by an Alakazam,"

When it didn't feel like the world was spinning, Vali opened her eyes and looked at Claydol as the large pokemon spoke in her mind. Unlike Metagross' rather distorted voice which was caused by having four minds, Claydol's voice was a smooth baritone that sounded slightly whispery, " _I am sorry for any distress caused during transit. I am not used to teleporting anyone save for Master Steven."_

"It's fine," Vali waved off the apology.

Steven spoke as he let go of Vali once he was sure she wouldn't fall over, "Shall we head inside and get something to eat?"

* * *

The day after the visit to Bill saw Vali taking her pokemon out to one of the somewhat desolate areas outside of town. Areas like this were commonly used by trainers to practice attacks that were far too powerful to be used in a city until the pokemon using the attack could control it. While they could just stick around the pokemon center, she didn't want to leave holes all over the place especially since none of her pokemon could really fill them up and Steven was out battling people to get Squirtle to evolve. After making sure no one was around, Vali released all her pokemon who looked a bit confused when they noticed that they weren't in Cerulean at the moment.

Clearing her throat to gain their attention, Vali began speaking, "This is known as a desolate area where pokemon trainers usually have their pokemon work on attacks that are far too powerful to be used in a city until they're able to control it, I bet you're wondering why I brought us out here and why Steven isn't here," Her pokemon nodded, "Steven is currently working to get Squirtle to evolve and is battling other people to ensure that happens. As it currently stands, he has agreed to have two of his pokemon, Metagross and Skarmory work with us today. He will join us later once Squirtle evolves. Now, I brought us out here for multiple reasons. Smaug, I want you to get down Fire-Fang today since you're so close to getting it down. Balto, I want you to keep working on Reversal. Celina, you'll be working on Swift for the same reason as Smaug is working on Fire-Fang. Once you get it down, you'll be working on Twister with Skarmory. Pikachu, I know you want to work on Thunder Bolt, but for today, I want you to teach Sandshrew how to dig," Each of her pokemon nodded as she released Steven's pokemon who already knew the situation even if they weren't exactly sold on it, "Skarmory, please continue helping Celina with her attacks. Metagross, can you set up a barrier of rocks around us and some targets?"

Skarmory took off without a word and Celina followed after the elder pokemon. Metagross made a metallic grunt before their eyes turned bright blue and the ground began to rumble. Soon enough, a round barrier of rocky pillars surrounded a good portion of the desolate area while a group of boulders was set up not far away. One boulder was about Balto's size and settled close to the puppy pokemon. Once the ground stopped shaking, her pokemon got to work. Metagross settled down beside her as she took a seat on the warm clay beneath her, " _Friend Vali, why did you choose this specific area? There are others closer to the city."_

Vali glanced at them before looking back at her pokemon, "I asked Nurse Joy before we left about the various desolate areas. She told me that this one had the softest ground that was perfect for Sandshrew to start learning how to dig on. She also told me that there had been a trainer that had come through a week ago that had a team of dragon-type pokemon. He used this area to train them."

 _"So you're hoping that the bird will be able to get a better grasp of the dragon-type energy she requires to use Twister?"_ Metagross asked earning a nod, " _And why ask for us rather than Claydol?"_

"My pokemon need to get more familiar with you as well as Skarmory if we're to be battling with one another," Vali answered watching as Pikachu patiently explained digging to a curious Sandshrew, "There's also the fact that I'm more familiar with you than Claydol and I have questions that I'd like to ask,"

Metagross made a metallic hum, " _What questions?"_

"My inner flame," Vali answered shifting slightly, "You said that Fawkes awakened it, but how did he do that just by me touching him?"

Metagross was silent for a few moments. Vali used that time to observe her pokemon as they worked and enjoy the breeze a bit. Smaug's mouth was lit up with fire, but by the time he went to bite down on the target he'd chosen, the flames fizzled out. Balto was doing his best to pull off a Reversal and had the beginning down pact which meant he should finish learning it soon enough. Celina's Swift wasn't fizzling out of existence anymore and she could create at least five energy stars which meant she should be able to pull it off very soon. Pikachu was showing Sandshrew how to shift the dirt apart with their paws after using their claws to dig some up. Metagross finally spoke drawing her attention to him, " _We do not know. It is likely that he channeled a hint of his magic into the spot you touched, but we cannot truly say. All we know is that the phoenix did it."_

Vali had expected such an answer though that didn't mean it was any less frustrating to think about. Instead of trying to push for answers that she would probably never get, she asked, "You said that my inner flame was sleeping before Fawkes awakened it. What exactly did you mean by that?"

 _"Every fire-type's inner flame must be awakened by their parents or in your case, the phoenix,"_ Metagross answered earning a confused look, " _Most fire-type parents will breath out flames onto their eggs. Within the flames they use on the eggs, a few small sparks of their own inner flame fall onto the eggs shell and sink inside where they will enter the embryo and form the baby fire-types inner flame. In the case of those like the lizard or the magma ones, the inner flame of their mother does so before the egg leaves their body. In the case of the lizard, it is due to the inner flame boasting bits of dragon-type energy that it will need to survive later on. In the case of the magma ones, the species has no maternal instincts. The eggs are abandoned once their laid,"_

A bit harsh, but understandable since some pokemon did not do parenting. After absorbing the information, Vali asked, "Is this just fire-types or is it every type of pokemon?"

" _It is every pokemon though only fire-types are required to contribute bits of their inner fire to the baby,"_ Metagross answered earning a soft hum from Vali as she took out her dex to write down everything Metagross was saying.

Once she had everything down, Vali asked, "My inner flame is mine, right?"

 _"Yes and it will only go out if you die,"_ Metagross answered earning a nod from Vali, " _Any other questions?"_

And with that said, Vali continued picking Metagross four brains for information. In the back of her mind, she wondered if perhaps she should write a research paper about this stuff since she'd never heard of it before. Well, she would leave it to Professor Oak to write the paper since he would be able to do all the scientific stuff that would be needed to verifying the information.

* * *

When Steven arrived at the area Vali had chosen to train at today, he hadn't been expecting Metagross and her to be talking about something that sounded really scientific in nature. It wasn't that Vali was stupid, but he just didn't expect her to share a scientific discussion with anyone. It was a bit bizarre and made him wonder if he'd hit his head at some point. He didn't really want to interrupt the two especially since this was the most Metagross had been excited since they'd left Hoenn, but it was about time everyone got something to eat. Walking over to them, he called out, "Vali, I take it your training has been productive today?"

Vali jumped slightly with a small squeak that had him smiling as she whipped around to look at him. Metagross made that metallic crackling sound that he'd figured out was the way the species laughed. Vali shot his pokemon a glare before looking back at him, "I think so. Did Squirtle evolve?"

"Yes and are you aware its lunch time?" Steven asked earning a wide eyed look.

Vali scrambled to find her watch before muttering a soft curse under her breath, "I guess it is. I should return everyone so we can go get something to eat."

"Just call them over here," Steven lifted up the picnic basket he'd picked up, "I brought lunch for everyone,"

Soon enough, all of Vali's pokemon had joined them while he'd called out Aggron and Lileep. Wartortle was currently staying at the pokemon center while Nurse Joy looked him over very thoroughly due to the fact the pokemon they'd been battling at the time was an Elekid and had managed to get a lot of hits in on Wartortle before he'd managed to evolve. Vali winced in sympathy as he told the story and said, "I hope he'll be okay. Being hit by a lot of electricity on top of evolving must have hurt him a lot, I don't want to think about what would happen if he had nerve damage."

Steven winced at that and prayed that Wartortle didn't have any nerve damage. Electric-types were known for causing nerve damage by complete accident during battles and even outside of them. The only species that had the smallest rate of causing nerve damage was the Pichu-line and even then, it could be very serious if it happened. Nurse Joys and those working with them could do a lot, but even they couldn't fully heal nerve damage if it was bad enough. Shaking his head lightly, he asked, "What brought on the discussion you were having with Metagross?"

"Originally, I was asking them about my inner flame," Vali took a drink from one of the three water bottles he'd gotten for her knowing she would need them, "Eventually, we ended up discussing the fact that all fire-types have to have their inner flame awakened. From there, it kind of spiraled into a discussion on why an egg generally happens to hatch into the female parent," Vali flushed lightly, "I guess we got a bit carried away though I have a lot to tell Professor Oak the next time I call him,"

"At this rate, he's going to have you write a journal of the stuff you find out," Steven chuckled earning a soft laugh from Vali.

"That's probably what's going to happen which is why I should buy some journals to write it down all the things I find out and send them via post to the Professor every time we hit a city," Vali smiled lightly as she finished laughing, "Who knows, he might have me write a research paper or something,"

Vali visibly shuddered and Steven couldn't blame her one bit. He knew exactly how evil research papers were since he'd written two of them about the discoveries he'd made inside Granite Cave. He had a feeling that Vali would end up writing more than one which would benefit her greatly when she finished her journey. Pokemon master's wrote quite a few research papers over the course of their life-time whether on the subject of their pokemon, the type they chose to master, or just things they enjoyed. At the moment, Agatha of the Kanto Elite Four had already written over 50 research papers and was considered the foremost ghost-type expert to date.

* * *

"Alright, Celina," Vali grinned at her after she'd finished showing her trainer that she'd finally learned Swift, "Now we're going to work on Twister, but do something a bit differently this time," Celina looked at her in confusion though listened to her words, "Focus on the energy around you and try to find the dragon-type energy,"

Celina looked a bit dubious at the suggestion since she hadn't really found any before, but followed her trainer's instructions. Closing her eyes, the Pidgeotto focused on the energy around her. As a flying-type, she was able to feel the energy of those around her via their movements stirring up the air. She picked up the feeling of the alpha of their flock attempting to utilize the limited fighting-type energy within his body. She could feel the lizard working to complete Fire Fang and the fire-type energy that was slowly, but surely working to obey him. She felt the electric mouse digging around with the ground mouse. She felt the psychic-type energy radiating off of Skarmory's two gender-less teammates. She felt the steel-type energy of the mass of steel and Skarmory. She even felt the odd grass and rock-type's energy as he worked to comply to his own trainers orders. And lastly, she felt her trainer comfortingly warm energy shift around a bit showing that she was eager to see Celina succeed.

Taking a deep breath to push those distractions away, Celina felt out the energy of the earth and air that wasn't being disturbed by her flock and their friends. Immediatly, she felt the dragon-type energy that had been evading her since she'd been set to learning Twister. The ancient and wild energy that danced with the air particles finally showed itself to her. She shivered slightly at the draconian energy that was as wild as the wind and screamed defiance against any attempt to tame it. She could respect the power of the dragons that wielded such an energy, but she wouldn't let it evade her again. Vali wanted her to learn how to wield the energy and she would do it!

Using her flying and normal-type energy together, Celina slowly and carefully directed the draconian energy to her. She didn't force it yet otherwise it would slide from her grasp before she could use it. Slowly, but surely, the energy got where she wanted it though as soon as enough was there, it broke free of her grasp. Instead of being angry, she mentally grinned and opened her eyes. She knew what to do now and had her trainer to thank for it. Vali looked at her eagerly and she laid her head on Vali's shoulder trilling softly as Steven commented, "I believe that she's found the dragon-type energy."

Celina trilled to show her agreement making Vali grin and wrap her arms gently around the Pidgeotto's neck, "Good job, Celina. Now we just need to work on using it."

Celina's chest puffed up as pride filled her. She would not be letting her trainer down!

* * *

Vali headed to see Nurse Joy after eating breakfast two days before the gym battle. Nurse Joy checked over Sandshrew with a light smile before saying, "Sandshrew can start light training and in a week, you should be able to train her as much as your other pokemon. I just hope you'll take it a little easier on her because she is still young."

"Of course and thank you, Nurse Joy," Vali picked up Sandshrew and rubbed her stomach earning a coo of pleasure from the little one, "Looks like you're going to start battling soon, Sandshrew,"

Sandshrew nuzzled her lightly as Nurse Joy laughed softly, "I'm happy to help, Vali."

* * *

On the day of the gym battle, Vali decided against doing any last minute training. Instead, she had her pokemon stretching and getting ready for what was to come. She had Nurse Joy check over both Pikachu and Celina yesterday to make sure they were good to go. Both of them were as healthy as could be at the moment, they were ready for whatever was going to come their way. She gave them both the same pep talk she'd given Smaug and Balto before their own first gym battle. At a quarter to 2, they met up with Steven and headed towards the gym.

Steven glanced at her as they walked, "Nervous?"

"Just a bit, but I know we can win this," Vali smiled brightly as Balto barked in agreement beside her, "We've been working hard the last two weeks. Celina has more attack options and Pikachu's Thunder Shock is a lot more powerful now. While we might not have managed to learn Thunder Bolt or Twister yet, we still managed a lot," She looked at him, "Are you nervous?"

"Just a bit, but I'm always a little nervous before a League sanctioned battle," Steven replied with a chuckle as they reached the gym.

They entered and Misty came rushing up, "Vali! Balto! Steven!"

"Hey, Misty," Vali bent down and caught the orangette with a warm smile, "How are you today?"

"Excited! I can't wait to see the battle," Misty hugged her around the neck, "Do you think you'll win today?"

"I hope that we do and I believe in my pokemon," Vali answered as she let go of Misty to stand up.

Grace walked out with a bright smile, "Ready to go, you two?"

Vali and Steven nodded, "Yes, Ma'am."

"Follow me," Grace said and they followed her through the gym towards the biggest pool in the entire building.

It doubled as their battle arena and where they did their shows. The top of the water could hold up to 25 floating platforms at a time with more than enough room between them for the water locked pokemon to easily maneuver around. Misty headed to the large stands where her sisters were sitting while they headed to the large trainer boxes. Grace headed to the trainer box where her husband was already waiting. Balto stuck beside Vali despite the close proximity of the water. She was tempted to tell him to go join Misty, but knew that he'd prefer to stay right beside her. They walked up the stairs to the trainer box and took their position with Balto settling down beside her feet. The referee came out moments later and took his box. He spoke once everyone had gotten quiet, "This is a double battle between the gym leaders Grace and Walter Waterflower of Cerulean city and Valkyrie Potter of Pallet Town and Steven Stone of Mossdeep City! The rules for this battle are two pokemon per person with only the challengers allowed to switch! So long as all the pokemon on one side have fainted, they will win the battle! Trainers release your pokemon!"

Vali released Celina first as Steven did the same with Metagross. Grace released a Seel that looked like it was on the verge of evolution and Walter released a Staryu that was far larger than any of the ones that she had seen before. Celina took the air as Metagross settled on one of the floating platforms. Seel and Staryu settled on the platforms though both were probably more than ready to head into the water if they needed to. Grace looked at Vali in surprise, "Not releasing your Pikachu just yet?"

"Nope. I have a feeling I'll need him later though don't put Celina down. She's stronger than she was two weeks ago," Vali replied earning a slight grin.

The Referee held up his hand before lowering it, "Begin!"

"Celina start things off with Gust!" Vali called out.

"Metagross use Sludge Bomb!" Steven called out with a slight grin.

Even if Sludge Bomb didn't hit either of their targets, it would probably get into the water thanks to Gust spreading it around. The poisonous sludge would disperse through the water poisoning it so that any pokemon that ended up inside of it would find themselves poisoned. Since Steven's pokemon were steel-type they were immune, Vali didn't plan on having either of her pokemon in the water. As a result, Grace and Walter would be on a time limit. Grace frowned slightly as she and Walter told their pokemon to dodge. Both pokemon disappeared into the water as the rather large ball of sludge slammed into the platform that Seel had been sitting on. The sludge exploded showering the floating platform and the water around it. Walter chuckled, "That was a good move though the water kind of prevents it from working. Staryu use Swift!"

"Seel back Staryu up with Aurora Beam!" Grace called out looking at Steven and Vali with a wary expression.

"Celina use Swift as well!" Vali called out and Celina let out a trill before releasing a shower of star-shaped energy just as Seel and Staryu released their own attacks.

"Metagross use Protect then Sludge Bomb once more once the attacks subside," Steven said earning a metallic grunt from Metagross.

Celina's Swift blocked Staryu's from hitting her and caused Seel's Aurora beam to explode. Celina kept using Swift as Metagross sent out another huge ball of sludge that exploded on the platform Staryu had gotten on to. Seel cried out as Celina's swift hit it before it ducked back into the water. Staryu managed to dodge the Sludge Bomb by getting into the water allowing more of the poisonous goop to disperse into the water. Vali called out, "Celina use Gust on the water. As strong as you can!"

Celina let out a trill before complying as she stopped her onslaught of Swift. Metagross wasn't one to be left out and used Thunder Punch on the water making both water-pokemon cry out in pain as the electricity ran through the rough water. They got out of the water soon after the attack began allowing Celina to dart forward with Arial Ace and slam into Seel with a Steel Wing. Seel went flying back into the water from the sheer force behind Celina's attack which caused it to be shocked by Metagross' still active Thunder Punch. Celina cried out as she was sniped by Staryu using Bubble Beam. Celina pulled up before she could hit the water as Steven called out, "Metagross, Sludge Bomb again!"

Metagross pulled their leg from within the water and released another ball of sludge. Staryu didn't cut off its attack in time to dodge and ended up covered in poisonous goo. It shrieked in pain as a purple aura covered its body and Walter shouted, "Into the water, Staryu!"

Staryu jumped into the water as Grace shouted, "Seel use Ice Beam on that Pidgeotto!"

"Celina use Quick Attack to evade that beam!" Vali shouted not wanting to see her flying-type get hit by an Ice Beam.

"Metagross use Psychic on Staryu and slammed into Seel!" Steven looked a bit worried as Celina worked on dodging Seel's rather powerful Ice beam.

Celina did her best to keep ahead of the beam using all the speed Quick Attack could give her. She was pulling barrel rolls to help dodge the beam and Vali was so glad that she'd had her Pidgeotto work on her speed as well as her stamina during the last two weeks. Staryu was grabbed by Metagross with Psychic causing the star-shaped pokemon to cry out in pain before it was slammed into Seel's back cutting off the sea-lion pokemon's Ice Beam. The two ended up being sent into the sludge covered platforms causing both to be coated in the substance. Seel began spitting as it had been slammed face first into the platform causing it to get some of the sludge in its mouth. It let out a pained yowl as a purple aura covered it for a few seconds. Vali grinned as she said, "Looks like Walter and Grace are on a time-limit."

"Good," Steven smiled looking pleased, "Metagross use Meteor Mash!"

As Metagross lifted their arm as it began to glow a sparkling grey color, Vali called out, "Celina Gust! Keep from getting caught up in Metagross' attack!"

Celina trilled as Metagross released the energy it had gathered with a punch. The energy left their leg in a circular wave that slammed into Seel and Staryu flinging both pokemon into the wall. Celina managed to stay mostly out of the way though she did get clipped by the energy. She was still able to fly, but that attack had still hurt her. Seel managed to rise back up while Staryu's red gem had turned grey. The referee called out, "Gym Leader Walter, return your Staryu as it has fainted and Release your next pokemon!"

Walter chuckled softly as he took out his pokeball and returned Staryu, "Well that was a fun work out. Shall we get to the main event?" He placed Staryu's pokeball onto his belt and pulled out what looked like a luxury ball, "Come on out and help me show them what water-types can do!"

A Milotic appeared on the field and Vali stared at it in awe. They were even more beautiful up close! She itched to take a picture of it and mentally promised herself to ask Walter for a photo after the battle was over. Milotic let out a trill after shaking its head and peered at what was going on curiously. Vali called out, "That Milotic of yours is absolutely gorgeous."

Milotic trilled at her as it's tail wagged a bit showing that it had liked the compliment. Walter chuckled, "Thank you. Melissa and I have been together for a while now."

"After the battle is over, do you think I could get a picture of her?" Vali asked earning a chuckle, "I've never seen one in real life before,"

"I don't mind and Melissa absolutely loves having her picture taken," Walter replied making Vali grin, "Melissa, we're in a battle. I need you to use Disarming Voice,"

Melissa rose up a bit and began to sing softly. While it sounded pleasant to human ears, it grated on the ears of pokemon thus causing damage. Celina let out a shrill trill of pain due to her sharp ears making the sound amplify. Seel whined reminding Vali that Disarming Voice affected all pokemon on the field not just the opposing pokemon. Metagross let out a metallic grunt and sent a Sludge Bomb towards Melissa causing the Milotic to close her mouth and slide into the water to avoid being hit by the poisonous gunk. Celina shot forward the moment Sludge Bomb hit the platform and slammed into Seel with Ariel Ace. Seel managed to get up after being flung away only to pass out moments later due to the poison in its system. The Referee called out, "Gym Leader Grace, return your Seel as it has fainted and release your next pokemon!"

Grace returned Seel with a sigh, "Good job Seel," She placed Seel's pokeball into her purse and pulled out another one, "Seaking, I have need of your assistance!"

"Celina," Vali called out causing the Pidgeotto to look at her, "Want to take a break?" Celina paused before nodding and Vali returned her before releasing Pikachu, "Celina's taking a break. We've got a Seaking and Milotic to deal with, Pikachu," Pikachu sparked up at that and growled as he looked for his opponents, "Both of them are in the water, I want you to shock them with Thunder Shock,"

Pikachu nodded before curling his body up slightly as he charged up his attack before releasing a powerful Thunder Shock into the water. Steven chuckled as he called out, "Metagross follow Pikachu's example and use Toxic on the water."

Metagross' leg lifted up and began to glow a poisonous purple color before they dipped it into the water. Grace muttered something under her breath before calling out, "That's why you didn't look annoyed when Sludge Bomb didn't hit. You've been poisoning the water."

"Steven's pokemon are immune to poison and Metagross can easily keep my pokemon from hitting the water if yours try to knock them inside," Vali shrugged lightly with a grin as both Grace's and Walter's pokemon cried out in pain.

Melissa got onto the platform only to stiffen showing that she was paralyzed. Seaking jumped up in an attempt to stop the pain and ended up taking an Electro-Ball to the gut for its troubles. Walter frowned as he called out, "Melissa use Aqua Ring."

"Seaking use Horn Drill on Pikachu!" Grace called out making Vali's eyes widen.

"Shit," She muttered as Seaking swam quickly towards Pikachu, "Pikachu dodge it and use Electric Terrain!"

They hadn't used that move much mostly because it hadn't been needed; however in this situation, they needed as much help as they could get. Steven glanced at her and nodded showing he understood why she'd done it. Pikachu lept over Seaking as it jumped out of the water in an attempt to hit it with it's glowing horn. Pikachu landed and immediately released a large amount of electricity into the platform below him. The area around him began to glow yellowish gold Electric Terrain formed. Walter stared at Pikachu, "I suppose that would be an egg move then."

"One of them," Vali had been very lucky that Pikachu had accepted her as his trainer, "Pikachu, let loose a Thunder Shock at Milotic! As strong as you can!"

Pikachu did as she asked and Melissa _screamed_. An Electric Terrain electric-type attack wasn't something anyone wanted to be hit with even less so when you were a water-type. Vali flinched as Melissa withered around before falling to the ground as Pikachu's attack petered out. Melissa tried to rise up only to fall back down in a dead faint. Walter returned her as the Referee called out, "Gym Leader Walter is out of pokemon."

"Sorry Walter," Vali looked at him feeling horrified.

"It's okay, Vali. Melissa has had worse though I will admit that an Electric Terrain powered Thunder Shock was a bit much for her," Walter offered her a kind smile before turning to his wife, "Good luck, Honey,"

"Thanks," Grace rolled her eyes before looking at Seaking, "Seaking horn drill and make sure to hit that Pikachu,"

"Metagross catch it with Psychic," Steven countered.

"Thunder Shock, Pikachu," Vali said after Metagross had captured the struggling goldfish pokemon.

Seaking's eyes bulged before closing as it fell limp seconds later. The referee spoke as Grace returned her passed out pokemon, "Winner Valkyrie Potter of Pallet Town and Steven Stone of Mossdeep city!"

"We won?" Vali looked at Pikachu, "We won!"

Pikachu jumped across the floating platforms to the trainer box where he was promptly run over by an excited Balto. Pikachu cried out in shock, but accepted the tongue bath as Metagross floated over. Vali grinned as she hugged Steven making him let out a surprised laugh before he hugged her back, "Looks like we won."

Vali let go of him with a small laugh, "Sorry."

"It's fine," Steven shook his head lightly as he reached out to pat Metagross' head, "We should head down,"

"Right," Vali bent down to pick up Pikachu who was glad to be away from Balto's eager tongue, "Good job, Pikachu. You did very well working beside Metagross," Pikachu let out a soft coo as she began petting him, "I'll give you a really good bath,"

Pikachu nodded and moved to settle on her shoulder as they started leaving the trainer box. Grace and Walter met them at the bottom. Grace beamed at them, "Nicely done, you two. It was a really good battle."

"That it was which is why we're proud to present you with the Cascade badge," Walter said as Grace pulled out a box holding two blue tear drop shaped badges.

Vali and Steven took one with smiles, "Thank you."

"We should head to the pokemon center and get everyone checked out," Grace suggested making Vali feel guilty again.

Walter seemed to know what she was thinking about and said, "Don't be guilty, Vali. It was a battle and in battle, pokemon can get hurt. Like I said, Melissa has had worse though I will admit that I have been rather lax when it comes to training her in resisting electric types."

"Why is that?" Steven asked with a raised eyebrow, "I would have thought you'd use a Lanturn, Quagsire, or some other pokemon that has a resistance to electric-type seeing as you knew that Vali had one,"

"We usually would, but recently a few trainers from previous badge runs came through," Grace explained as they headed out of the gym, "None of the pokemon we would normally use are currently able to battle due to some of the trainers being especially brutal. The ones that didn't get used have either recently evolved or have entered their breeding season,"

"Next time you're in Cerulean, you should stop by and we can battle using one of them," Walter offered earning a nod from Vali.

* * *

During the days after their gym battle, Vali and Steven got ready to travel once more. As summer was ending, Vali ended up picking up a few thicker shirts and some long pants. She would have to wait until Celadon to pick up any winter clothes, but she didn't need any at the moment. She picked up a bit more pokemon food and trainer meals than usual though it was less than what she had picked up before they left Pewter city. They wouldn't be stopping in Saffron city for more than night after all. While it would be a good idea to get a gym badge from Sabrina, Vali did not want to face Lt. Surge after she got her third badge since that was when the kid gloves came off so to speak. Gym leaders could use the lower members of their league teams. Lt. Surge had a team of real monsters that were far more scary than any psychic-type. She also didn't want to face Sabrina just yet since she didn't have a dark-type or a ghost-type that could make fighting her easier. She knew that none of her pokemon were ready to face someone that had only given out a total of three badges so far this season.

Other than preparing to leave Cerulean city, Steven and Vali were giving their pokemon some time to recover from the heavy training sessions that had been put through the last week or so. They still trained a bit, but it was light training which all of her pokemon were thankful for. They were helping Sandshrew slowly get up to speed. She spent a bit more time at the Cerulean gym both to take pictures of the water-type pokemon, but to also spend time with the Waterflower family. She ended up promising the triplets that she would come by after they took over the gym and battle them again. Misty managed to wriggle out a promise to battle together when she finally became a trainer. Grace got her to promise to call seemingly taken with the fire-type master in training and managed to get Delia's phone number from Vali. Walter had gotten Vali to promise to call the moment she got a water-type so he could give her advice. The triplets had gotten the same promise though it was more about grooming tips. Even Steven hadn't been spared from the Waterflower families attention, it would seem they both left a good impression on the family of six.

On the last day before they left Cerulean, Vali called home and introduced Ash and Delia to Sandshrew. It took some coaxing before the timid pokemon stopped trying to cower into her stomach. It was mostly thanks to Delia's efforts though seeing as the woman had a knack for coaxing pokemon into liking her. By the end of the call, Sandshrew was practically attempting to climb through the screen to meet Delia much to their amusement. Delia thanked Vali for the package and Ash told her that he'd loved the presents she'd sent him. After that, Vali ended up calling Professor Oak. It was about time he met her shiny Sandshrew. Professor Oak enjoyed seeing the timid pokemon and said that he would love to study her whenever she was at the lab. Just like Delia and Ash, Professor Oak had received the package she'd sent. Gary and Daisy enjoyed the presents she sent with the elder Oak sibling promising to repay Vali once she went on her own journey. Professor Oak promised to read through the letter she had sent in private while also saying that he would send her a message once he'd gotten through everything she'd sent him.

* * *

The morning they were leaving saw Vali receiving a message from Professor Oak. A small pit formed inside her stomach as she got into a private booth and called the Professor. She wondered if Professor Oak was sending Eevee to her or if Eevee's health had taken a turn for the worst. It wouldn't be the first time something like that happened. One day, the pokemon or human seemed to be doing just fine then the next they were quickly plummeting off a cliff and dying. From what she noticed during her time in Pallet Town when an abused pokemon was brought in, half the time they managed to physically recover and start working on getting mentally better. The other half saw them fighting to survive before suddenly losing all form of hope. As the phone rang, Vali hoped that Eevee was doing alright.

Professor Oak answered rather than one of his aids to her surprise, "Good morning, Vali."

"Hello, Professor," Vali stared at him.

"What's with that look?" Professor Oak looked a bit confused.

Vali shook her head lightly, "I'm just surprised that you were the one to answer the phone rather than your aids."

"Oh," Professor Oak flushed lightly, "Things have been very busy lately. Your classmates have been sending quite a few pokemon in. I'm almost glad you've decided to do the opposite,"

"I'm creating a family not just snapping up pokemon that would be useful for something then forgetting about them," Vali winced at the biting and bitter tone she used, "Sorry, Professor,"

"It's fine, Vali," Professor Oak was giving her an understanding look that made her both glad and annoyed, "Well, I suppose you're wondering why I asked you to call me,"

Vali nodded as she leaned back in her chair, "We're leaving Cerulean in a two hours."

"I've called you for two reasons," Vali nodded lightly, "First, Eevee is physically healed and I'll be sending his pokeball over to Cerulean once we finish talking. I've already sent a message to Nurse Joy, so you need only to walk up to the counter and give her your pokedex saying that I sent a pokemon to you," Professor Oak looked at her with a small smile, "I know you'll be able to help him recover and bring out the best in him, Vali,"

"I'll do my best," Vali promised him, "Is there anything that I need to know?"

"Try to avoid having Eevee near male humans. You should take it slow when you introduce him to Steven," Vali nodded having already figured that out from how Delia spoke before, "Don't try to train him until he wishes to," She hadn't been planning on it, "He's attached to the Flareon plush you gave him, so don't take it away," Vali grinned at that, "I'll be putting him in an inactive slot. You can't use him in an official battle or anything like that. You'll be able to catch a new pokemon if you want and use it in official battles. Any time you're in a pokemon center, talk to the nurse joy and have them check him out. This spring, he'll be given a psyche evaluation to see how he has progressed. Other than that, I'd say it's a learning experience,"

Vali nodded feeling the pit in her stomach vanish, "I'll go see Nurse Joy immediately after we're finished talking. And the other thing, Professor?"

Professor Oak gained an uncharacteristically stern look on his face, "Vali, is Metagross sure that you have an inner flame?"

"Yes and to be quite honest, it would explain a lot of things," Vali said earning a soft sigh, "Is something wrong?"

Professor Oak ran a hand through his short grey hair, "You're going to have to be very careful, Vali. If something like this got out, you could be hunted even worse than if anyone found out who you really are."

"I figured, Professor," It was a scary thought though it wasn't anything new, "I'm going to be working heavily on my mental barriers and keep Fawkes' feather where it is. I'm not going to risk exposing myself,"

A relieved sigh left him, "I'm glad, Vali. I know you aren't reckless, but I had to make sure," He smiled eagerly, "Have you tried anything with it yet?"

"No. I'm going to try meditating and seeing if I can find it like how I did to use my magic after my wand quit working," Vali answered earning a slightly disappointed look, "I'll keep you posted if I find anything. I did find something out from our trip to Bill's cottage," Professor Oak looked at her curiously, "I still have my ability to understand snakes though I need to concentrate to be able to hear everything properly even then, the accent can make it a bit hard to understand. I haven't tried speaking it yet, but even if I can't, it's a nice ability to have,"

"That's wonderful, Vali!" Professor Oak grinned, "You'll have to tell me everything you find out,"

"I'm going to be writing a journal to keep track of everything and I'll send the journals to you every time we hit a city with a post office," Vali said making Professor Oak's smile widen even more, "It'll help me improve my handwriting too. Steven even promised to teach me how to read the language they use in Hoenn too and write in it for when I eventually go to Hoenn,"

"Sounds like your journey is going to be a busy one," Professor Oak chuckled before turning slightly and making a soft noise, "Ah yes, Vali. I've recently been in contact with Blaine. The gym leader of Cinnabar island," Vali looked at him curiously, "I won't get into details about why, but I ended up talking about you due to the fact you've decided to become a fire-type master and I mentioned the bond you have with fire-types which having an inner flame would probably help along," Vali giggled at that, "Anyway, Blaine is a bit skeptical, but interested in seeing if its true. When you finally go to Cinnabar and have your battle, he'll be testing you on how fire-types act around you as well as the bond you have with your pokemon. Depending on how you'll do, you might be able to train with Blaine until the League conference after you get all your badges,"

"Seriously?" Holy Mew! Training under a Gym Leader much less a former elite four member who's known for his mastery over fire-type pokemon and the Magby-line was a fire-type trainers wet dream.

Professor Oak nodded with a grin, "I take it that you'll agree to it?"

"Yes!" Vali inwardly began to dance a bit, "I just have to prove myself to him, right?"

"That's right," Professor Oak chuckled.

"Thank you, Professor! I don't know how to thank you!" Vali couldn't believe she was so damn lucky.

Oh, the training would be hard as hell, but it would be so worth it. Professor Oak shook his head lightly, "You don't need to thank me though if you wouldn't mind doing something for me, I would be happy."

Vali looked at him curiously, "What do you need me to do?"

"Send me pictures too," Professor Oak answered making Vali laugh, "You're a good photographer, Vali. I wouldn't be surprised if you ended up having a career in it once you finish your journey,"

Well, that was an interesting thought. Shaking her head lightly, Vali said, "I better get off. Steven and I want to leave while we have a lot of daylight so we can make good time to Saffron. We only have a two weeks and a few days before the Rapidash and Ponyta migration."

"I won't keep you. Good luck with Eevee, Vali," Professor Oak said, "And good luck on your journey,"

"Thanks, Professor," Vali replied and ended the call.

Heading out of the private booth, Vali headed towards the front desk and found Steven waiting. He looked at her curiously, "Professor Oak's sending over Eevee. He's given me an inactive slot which means I won't have to send one of my pokemon home if I manage to catch a Ponyta."

"Well, we should get Eevee then," Steven said and they got into the rather short line in front of the desk.

Nurse Joy looked up as they reached the desk and smiled, "Hello, you two. What can I do for you?"

"We're returning our room keys," Steven said as they pulled them out.

"I'm also picking up a pokemon that Professor Oak's sending me," Vali said as she took out her pokedex.

Nurse Joy took all three items, "Give me a few moments," She disappeared before reappearing holding a luxury ball and what looked like a storage case much to Vali's shock, "Here you are."

"A luxury ball?" Vali murmured as she took the pokeball from Nurse Joy.

"It's the best ball for pokemon that haven't had the best life," Nurse Joy informed her earning a curious look, "I don't know why, but it apparently helps them recover,"

"Interesting," Vali felt the pokeball vibrate a little, "And the storage case?"

Nurse Joy produced a paper from her pocket, "Professor Oak wished for you to know that it's currently holding 'the plush' and that it can hold up to thirty pounds. He figured it was a good reward for the work you've done so far."

Vali nodded as she slipped the storage case into her bag, "Thanks, Nurse Joy."

"Anytime," Nurse Joy replied before they headed out.

Steven looked at her curiously, "What now?"

"How about we get out of Cerulean and I tell you everything that Professor Oak talked to me about during our call?" Vali suggested as they headed towards the south exit of Cerulean.

"Alright," Steven shrugged lightly.

Vali looked at the luxury ball in her hand and felt her heart clench. Seeing Eevee in the flesh after so long would be interesting, she didn't know how he would react seeing as he was always glaring at her. She hoped that he wouldn't try to run away.

* * *

 **Trainer's Name:  
Age:  
Gender:  
Hair Color:  
Eye Color:  
Region of origin:  
(Just basic information for the next two)  
Pokemon 1:  
Pokemon 2:**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997: Hello and welcome to the next installment of Valkyrie Potter: Pokemon Journey...I honestly can't do that announcer stuff.**

 **Anyway, nice to see you guys again. For those that gave me OC suggestions, thank you. If I didn't use your suggestion, I apologize. Man, this chapter kicked my butt, but I managed to get it out early which won't happen too often. As always, thank you for reading and please review. I'm also wondering I should get a Beta especially if you guys find mistakes in here. To be quite honest, the last bit of the chapter was a bit hard to write, but you guys got a ton of action, so that makes up for it...maybe?**

 **Reviews:**

 **frankieu : Thank you and me too.**

 **comodo50 : I think you mean Johto since Ho-Oh is a Johto legend not a Hoenn one unless you mean Groudon which is a maybe. It's an interesting idea that I might end up using.**

 **darkworkangel : I'll try my very best.**

 **Twister60 : I'm glad!**

 **yukicrewger2 : Maybe. You aren't wrong, but there's still time before Ash's journey and we find out. **

**ThunderClaw03 : Yes, he will, but he'll help Vali recover too. Yes, she does, but I like the idea of protective pokemon you know. I wouldn't say god rest his soul especially if the guys a rapist.**

 **Jostanos : Same thing happens to me whenever I review. It's scary how close some people can get sometimes. Hey, I was drawing a blank and OCs are a nice way to fill things out without making my brain explode. I really wanted to use him, Jost, but things came up and the tournament kid of wrote itself. Sorry. **

**RHatch89 : Thank you!**

 **vxgt : We'll just have to wait and see. Kind of similar, but not at the same time. I haven't made a concrete decision on that just yet, but leaning towards Team Rocket. Thanks for the OC, I hope I did him justice.**

 **NotRob : Somewhere around there. He's sixteen which I thought was in the first chapter. **

**xirons : Two reviews so:**

 **Review for chapter five: Smaug wanted to evolve and kept biting me so it had to happen. I think you mean she and you'll just have to see. I always ended up swearing whenever I had to face a goddamn Wingull or Arceus forbid Pelipper with Supersonic. She needed to evolve if Vali was to have a chance at the gym. Yeah, but I'm not sure if she'll get one just yet. *Smirks* Spoilers aren't allowed.**

 **Review for Chapter six: Thank you. I wasn't very sure when I wrote those. Me too, I inwardly grin when I think about those conversations while simultaneously try to keep them from having too much scientific stuff in them lest I lose the audience. That's what I'm going for, I think about being a pokemon trainer and that's kind of how I want my relationship with my pokemon to be, ya know?**

 **Tejerina : I'm glad you found and so happy that you like it. That's the point of it. Thank you, you could try looking up the Traveler, it's a really good fic. I haven't heard about that fic before, but I'll look it up eventually.**

 **Lady Kaiki: Thank you.**

 **lilith20047 : That's the plan.**

 **nikkali44 : I'm glad and you'll just have to wait and see.**

 **InTheDarkestHowers : Thank you and here's the next chapter. I'm always worried about keeping her progress at the correct pace and am glad you think so.**

 **DtCF : Thank you.**

 **Guest : Thanks for the review. As this is the pokemon world, I'm going to have magic be fairly low key like with how Aura and Psychic powers are. Since they're currently the only known magic users in the pokemon world, it seems a bit moot point to write books, but I can see how your suggestion would work. I haven't decided if other magic users will appear, so we'll just have to wait and see. I hope you enjoy the chapter and thank you very much.**

I want to give a shout out to Readingandgames1995 for their OC. They're going to be writing a pokemon fic soon and I'm eager to see how they do. Thanks again and good luck! PM me when your first chapters on site.

* * *

 **Words: 20,859**

* * *

Chapter 7

* * *

Steven shook his head as she finished explaining everything that she'd talked to Professor Oak about, "You're right about how lucky you are. Most trainers don't get a chance to be scouted by a former Elite Four member even under the recommendation of a regional Professor, you'll definitely have an easier time becoming a master than most."

"I highly doubt that considering how hard the training is going to be," Vali wasn't going to get cocky, "While having an actual fire-type master there to help me along the way, I doubt Blaine would coddle me nor allow me to take the easy way out," She smiled as she glanced down at Balto, "Not that I'd want to take the easy way out, I'm going to pour everything I can into become a fire-type master and seeing my pokemon achieve that level. It won't be easy by any means, but it'll be worth it,"

Steven grinned at her words, "Well, you'll have to pass Blaine's tests first."

"I know and I'll do my best," Vali spotted a path leading away from the one they were currently walking on, "Let's follow that path until we can find a decent clearing, I don't want to make Eevee wait any longer,"

Steven nodded as Vali turned to head down the fairly well maintained side path, "Of course, do you want me to have Metagross out?"

"Yes, but only to create a psychic barrier to keep Eevee from running away if he tries," Vali set her hand on Eevee's pokeball, "I also want you to try and stay out of Eevee's sight. Considering Professor Oak's words, I'd rather avoid Eevee attacking you before I get a chance to talk to him,"

"Of course," Steven agreed easily.

* * *

Once they reached a clearing that had no one inside, Steven released Metagross and had them create a psychic barrier around the clearing before moving out of sight. Vali released her pokemon save for Eevee and explained what was about to happen. Everyone save for Sandshrew understood what she was talking about, but she was sure that the others would keep Sandshrew from getting hurt if Eevee tried something. Once they moved a bit away, she released Eevee. Eevee shook his head once he fully materialized before freezing as he noticed that he wasn't in the lab anymore. When he sniffed the air, he must've scented her and spun towards her with a low growl in his throat.

Vali held up a hand to prevent her pokemon from reacting to the hostile sound as she said, "Eevee, you remember me, right?" Eevee's eyes narrowed into a glare as he nodded, "Professor Oak sent you to me to help you recover. While you've physically recovered, you're still attempting to mentally recover. I know you don't trust me and that's fine," Eevee looked surprised at her words before returning to his growling, "All I'm asking is that you give me a chance. I won't make you battle or try to touch you without permission," Eevee's eyes widened at her words, "Just stay with me and don't attack any of my friends. In return, I'll make sure you have enough food to eat, a place to sleep, and things like that. Give me three months to show you that I mean it, Eevee. If you still don't want to be around me, I'll send you back to Professor Oak," Eevee thought about it before grudgingly nodding his head, "Thank you, Eevee. Now, I'm going to introduce you to my team."

Balto greeted Eevee first making sure to keep his distance when the normal-type growled at him. Smaug was next and made sure to follow Balto's example. Celina was next and was actually able to get a bit closer to Eevee before he growled at her to stay away. Pikachu was next, but wasn't allowed any closer than Balto. Sandshrew was the last one to approach and Eevee looked more than a little confused at seeing her. After her team was introduced, Vali drew Eevee's attention to her again, "Do you want to meet my traveling companion?" Eevee shook his head, "I'll return you then and release you when we stop to eat."

Eevee nodded and Vali returned him. She sighed as Metagross' psychic barrier dissipated and the two came out. Steven commented, "That went fairly well."

"I have two months to convince him to stay," Vali ran a hand through her hair.

"You'll manage it," Steven told her.

Vali smiled at the confidence he had in her before glancing at the sky, "We should get moving if we want to get close to Saffron today."

* * *

When they stopped for the night, Vali waited until they got their campsite ready before releasing Eevee. Eevee glared at her as he reappeared before stiffening as he scent the air. Eevee's head whipped around to Steven and the fox-like pokemon got into a defensive crouch. She spoke as Eevee began charging up a Swift attack, "Eevee! Don't attack Steven, he's my traveling companion!" Eevee didn't stop charging the attack, but didn't release it either, "Eevee, remember you promised to trust me. If I didn't trust Steven not to hurt you, I wouldn't have brought you out or traveled with him this far."

Eevee turned his head and released the attack on a nearby tree. The Swift caused a mini-explosion and the tree shook violently. Luckily, it wasn't powerful enough to do more than scar the tree. Eevee released an annoyed growl and stalked over to one of the trees giving everyone a nasty glare. Vali sighed in relief at the fact no one had been hurt. She looked at Steven as she opened her mouth to apologize for Eevee only for Steven to raise a hand as he said, "It's okay, Vali. Professor Oak warned us that he didn't take well to males. I'll just have to watch my back when Eevee's out and try to avoid provoking him."

"Still," Vali felt bad that Eevee had almost attacked him.

Steven shook his head, "Let's just move past this, we still need to train a bit before we eat."

With that in mind, Vali set her pokemon to work knowing that Eevee was observing them.

* * *

Balto happily ate his pokemon food which really hit the spot after a good training session. He glanced at his newest pack member and felt a bit sad that the hurt one wouldn't join them. He understood that they needed to give the fox time, but it didn't sit right with his instincts. Growlithe were pack animals and very social when it came to said packs. He finished his food save for his last grepa berry. He paused glancing from his berry to his newest pack member before making a decision. Picking up the berry, he made his way over to his newest pack member well aware of the eyes on him. Once the hurt one began growling, he stopped moving and put the berry on the ground before rolling it towards the hurt one. The hurt one glanced down at the berry before looking at him. Barking gently and wagging his tail, he mimed eating the berry before making his way over to his trainer.

Seeing the pleased smile on her face, Balto knew he'd made the right decision even if he'd given up one of his favorite berries. He watched as each member of his pack did the same thing even the fire-lizard though it was grudging on his fellow fire-types part. The hurt one looked shocked at the gifts before shooting them a glare. He was pleased when the hurt one ate the berries. A hand settled on his head and he turned it towards his trainer as she murmured, "You did a good thing, Balto."

Balto wagged his tail and licked her cheek.

* * *

It took Steven and Vali four days to reach Saffron city. During those four days, they ended up facing more than a few trainers and earned quite a bit of cash though Vali ended up losing about seven times. She took the losses as hard as her pokemon who threw themselves into their training just a bit harder. Eevee stayed on the fringes whenever she let him out which was every time they took a break. He watched them with an unreadable expression as they trained and he seemed baffled by the exercises that the trainers did alongside their pokemon. Given who his former trainer was, she doubted that he'd seen a human train alongside their pokemon before.

Vali made sure Eevee had the Flareon plushie anytime he was outside of his ball and made sure it was put away before they moved on. Eevee seemed to be in a better mood whenever he had the plushie which was a relief to her. Eevee didn't try to attack Steven again, but he continued to watch the male trainer with a hostile glare. He didn't like Steven's pokemon either, but he made no move to attack them. Every time they stopped, she took the time to talk to Eevee like she did back at the pokemon center. Depending on her mood or the time of day, she talked about a wide range of things including her dream.

* * *

When they finally reached Saffron city, Vali was glad at first due to the promise of a hot shower and having her pokemon healed. Once they stepped into the city proper, her head started to hurt and the pain only got worse the further they got into the city. By the time they reached the pokemon center, she had to hold onto Steven in an attempt to keep her balance and to keep herself grounded. It felt like there were millions of hot pokers stabbing at her skull. The Nurse Joy looked at her in shocked concern as Steven helped her into the pokemon center, "What on earth happened to you?"

"Vali's had a headache since entering the city," Steven explained as he took out their pokedexs, "Can we get two rooms and our pokemon checked out?"

"O-of course," Nurse Joy took their pokedexs after setting two trays onto the counter, "Give me a moment to get your keys,"

Vali shakily put her pokeballs onto the tray as Steven did the same with a worried expression on his face. Nurse Joy returned soon with two room keys and their pokedexs. Taking the offered items, they headed up to their rooms. The moment Vali reached hers and got inside, she collapsed onto the bed in unconsciousness.

* * *

Steven headed to Vali's room carrying her pokeballs hoping that she was alright seeing as she hadn't come downstairs to get her pokeballs. He knocked on the door only to receive no answer. He tried the handle and found it unlocked. Opening the door, he walked inside spotting Vali laying on haphazardly on her bed. The headache she had must've tired her out. He placed Vali's pokeballs onto the bedside table and moved to place Vali into a more comfortably position. A gasp left him at the sheer heat radiating off of her skin when he touched her. Metagross popped out of their pokeball asking, " _Master Steven? What is wrong?"_

"Vali's burning up," Steven said as he moved Vali to lay on her back after removing her shoes, "Metagross, please have Nurse Joy send for one of the doctors,"

Metagross let out a metallic grunt, " _Of course."_

* * *

Due to Vali's temperature being over 109 degrees, she was put in the hospital while they attempted to bring down the fever as well as find out what had caused it. Steven was questioned heavily on Vali's heath during their travels together. Unfortunately, it seemed like nothing that the doctors did would bring down Vali's temperature and it kept increasing though it was thankfully a slow increase. By the time Steven had answered all the questions he could and called Vali's family to tell them what had happened, he was exhausted. Sitting by Vali's bedside, he ran a hand through his hair wondering what the hell had happened. He froze as Metagross spoke in his mind, " _Master Steven, I sense a powerful psychic human approaching. She is interested in Friend Vali."_

The door to the ward they were in opened to reveal someone he recognized to be Sabrina Hino, the Saffron city gym leader and one of the most power psychic humans to date. She has dark green almost black hair with dark purple streaks that blended into the green almost perfectly. She has dark amethyst eyes that focused on Vali the moment she entered the room. She wore a red and black dress with yellow cuffs over black tights/leggings, white gloves and red and yellow knee-high boots. She was slim and pale. Steven spoke as she approached, "Gym Leader Hino-"

"Steven Stone, heir of the Devon Corporation in Hoenn and prospective Steel-type master," Sabrina's voice was a soft monotone as if she didn't speak often, "You are traveling with Valkyrie Potter-Black,"

"Yes, I am," Steven frowned at her, "May I ask what brought you here?"

"I sensed your arrival in the city or rather," Sabrina looked at Vali as she reached the bed, "Her arrival. I fear it is my fault that she is in this state,"

Steven's frown deepened, "Why would you be at fault?"

Sabrina looked away from Vali, "I have been interested in Valkyrie since she arrived in this world two years ago. When she finally arrived within my city, I immediately sought out her mind to find answers to the questions that she brought up. In my eagerness, I used more force than I should have," Sabrina frowned as she looked at Vali, "Her current state-"

A whimper cut Sabrina off and they both looked at Vali. She was panting softly as she twisted on the bed. Steven grabbed her and forced her to lay still on the bed not wanting her to do any damage to herself. The heat rolling off of her made him want to hiss, "Can you fix whatever you did?"

Sabrina walked over and placed a hand over Vali's head as her eyes slid closed, "I will try."

* * *

 _Vali didn't understand how she'd gotten to this dark place that seemed ready to burn her to a crisp nor did she know how long she'd been there. The only things that didn't seem dark were the flashes of images that floated before her every now and again._

 _A volcano on an almost uninhabited island...  
_

 _A hidden passageway that led to the center of the volcano..._

 _Fire that burned hotter than lava..._

 _The shrieking cry of some kind of bird..._

 _A body veiled in glowing flames..._

 _Eyes the color of burning coal peering forward..._

 _Light began to filter into the dark place as the world around her seemed to cool. As the light began to fill the room through increasingly widening cracks, Vali heard a warm male voice call out, "_ _When the time is right, come to me and discover who you really are. Mortal bearer of the eternal flame!"_

Vali jolted upward with a gasp only to start coughing as her dry throat closed up on itself. A glass was pressed to her lips prompting her to open them and she began to drink the water that got rid of the dryness. Once she had enough, she was pushed to lay back down as she slowly opened her eyes to see what had to be the ceiling of a hospital. A groan left her, "Is is going to be every other city that I end up in the hospital?"

A weak chuckle sounded from her right and she looked over to see Steven. He offered her a weak grin, "Hopefully not."

"What happened?" Vali asked feeling tired despite just waking up, "All I remember is going into my room and laid down on my bed wanting to sleep off my headache,"

"You've been in the hospital for a day after I found you collapsed in your room running a very high fever," Steven explained making Vali gap at him, "I got worried when you didn't come downstairs to collect your pokemon, so I picked them up and went to check on you,"

A somewhat cold monotone voice sounded from the left side of her bed causing Vali to look over, "It's my fault you ended up in this position, Valkyrie Potter-Black."

Vali's eyes widened, "Y-you're Sabrina Hino. The Saffron city gym leader."

Sabrina's lips twitched a bit as she nodded, "That I am. I must apologize for putting you in this position."

Confusion ran through Vali as she looked at the older girl, she asked, "What do you mean? How did you make me have a fever?"

"Two years ago when you arrived within this world, I felt it happen," Sabrina explained as she settled on the bed next to Vali's, "Over the years, I have been keeping an eye on you and to a lesser extent, your godfather. Over these years, I have gained a great interest and many questions as a result of my observations," Well that's a bit creepy if understandable, "When you arrived within my city, I sought out your mind the moment I sensed it so close. In my eagerness to finally get answers to the questions I have, I unfortunately did not use the care needed to interact with other human minds and used more force than I should have,"

"That would explain why it felt like millions of hot pokers were stabbing at my mind," Vali said earning a wince from the gym leader, "Well, I'm glad it wasn't someone that would use the time to kidnap me or something,"

Sabrina's lips twitched again, "Yes, but I must apologize for causing your situation."

"So long as you don't do it again or ask permission, it's fine," Vali waved off the apology making Sabrina and Steven look at her in surprise, "You didn't mean to cause me any distress or pain, right?"

"Right," Sabrina nodded slowly.

"Then it's okay," Vali looked at the gym leader curiously, "What exactly happened anyway?"

Sabrina sat up a bit straighter, "Due to the pressure I was putting on your mind, I triggered some kind of defense mechanism causing your consciousness to withdraw deep into your core," Sabrina fiddled with one of the pokeballs at her waist, "I immediately withdrew my mind once you fell unconscious both because I knew that I might've hurt you and because some kind of energy, your magic most likely, burned me. I fell unconscious until this morning."

Vali winced at that, "Sorry."

Sabrina shook her head, "It is a fair deal seeing as I hurt you in the process."

Vali smiled a bit, "Guess we're even then."

"I suppose," Sabrina smiled a little.

Vali frowned as she remembered that odd place she'd been in, "I...When I fell unconscious, I found myself in a dark place that felt hot enough to burn me to a crisp. I don't know why that place would be at my core, but I...I saw something."

"What did you see?" Steven asked looking at her in concern.

Vali's eyes closed as flashes of that vision hit her, "An active volcano on some almost completely uninhabited island," It became harder to speak as the images blurred a bit, "Something veiled in flames that burned hotter than the lava that sounded vaguely bird-like," She grabbed her head as a bolt of pain slid through her mind, "A voice...It told me...to come when the time was right...something would have answers..."

"Vali," Steven shot out of his chair and placed a hand on her shoulder, "What's wrong?"

"My head," Vali almost curled in on herself as the pain seemed to burn her alive.

The feeling of something cool soothed the edges of the pain and slowly pushed it away. Vali opened her eyes as Sabrina said, "Calm down and breath."

"What was that?" Steven asked as Vali took a deep breath forcing herself to calm down from the mild panic the pain had caused.

"A warning," Sabrina looked at Vali with a frown, "Something doesn't want you speaking of what you saw," The gym leader stood from the bed, "I do not know why, but you must not speak of what you've seen to anyone,"

If that was going to happen anytime she tried, Vali wasn't going to try again, "I won't."

A beep sounded and Sabrina pulled out what looked to be a pokegear, "I must go attend to my duties. Valkyrie-"

"Call me Vali please," Vali interrupted earning a raised eyebrow, "Considering everything that happened, I would prefer it if you called me Vali,"

Sabrina nodded slowly, "Vali then. The next time you're in Saffron city please come to see me at the gym. I wish to help you construct barriers that will keep most psychics out of your mind. It will hopefully prevent another incident like this from happening."

"I will," Vali promised since she really didn't want to deal with another headache like the one Sabrina had caused.

Sabrina nodded lightly, "I have placed a temporary barrier that should last until the next time you come to Saffron especially if Mr. Stone's psychic types are willing to assist in powering it," Sabrina looked at Steven and received a nod, "With that said, I wish you luck in ensuring Vali's safety, Mr. Stone."

With that, Sabrina disappeared via teleportation and Vali stared at the place the gym leader had once stood. Vali looked at Steven as he said, "Well, that was not how I imagined meeting a gym leader."

"No kidding," Vali laid back against the pillows.

"I'll got get the doctors and see how soon they'll release you now that your temperature seems to be going down," Steven stood up earning a nod from Vali.

* * *

Once Vali was released from the hospital, she immediately called out her pokemon to explain the situation despite the fact that Steven had already done so. All of her pokemon save for Eevee looked at her in worry while she explained before becoming angry at the fact Sabrina had caused it. It was very likely that Sabrina would not be receiving a warm welcome from her pokemon any time soon. After calming them down, she proceeded to call home and ended up having to pacifying Delia as the woman wished for her to come home for a little while. As soon as Delia was calmed down and assured that she didn't need to come home, she learned that Ash would be going to school soon alongside Gary which Delia hoped would calm the two down. She gave Ash some advice for school even if she wasn't too sure how well it would work. After that, she got all of her clothes cleaned up and everything in her bag restocked.

A day after Vali was released from the hospital saw her leaving Saffron with Steven. Neither of them wished to stay, the whole incident with Sabrina was a bit too fresh. She wasn't looking forward to returning to Saffron for multiple reasons other than the whole Sabrina incident. The city was far too loud and crowded for her peace of mind. While it wasn't too polluted, it still didn't offer the same fresh air as the other cities she'd been to. Saffron also seemed to be home to many bad tempered people that seemed to rush everywhere. It reminded her of London only with more technology and less cars. There was also the fact that her pokemon disliked the city as well, Balto's sensitive nose caught every scent possible in Saffron leaving him highly disoriented causing her to keep him inside his pokeball. Sandshrew and Eevee pointedly refused to leave their pokeballs unless it was to eat. Celina wasn't allowed to fly in the city mostly because of the various sky scrapers. Pikachu stuck to her shoulders whenever he was outside of his pokeball while Smaug kept to her side. As it was, Smaug was the only one able to stay outside of his pokeball for long periods of time though it was mostly to keep an eye on her.

* * *

Vali breathed in the fresh air alongside her pokemon and felt her shoulders relax. Steven chuckled as he watched them, "I take it our next visit to Saffron will be fairly quick?"

"If I can help it," Vali grimaced as she glanced back at the city that wasn't that far away, "I know that there's a lot of fun stuff to do in that city, but..."

"You don't like it," Steven offered her a warm smile, "I don't either. I hear that Celadon is a lot better despite being a big city as well,"

"That's because Celadon is host to many grass-types," Vali said as they started walking, "Due to the fact all grass-types are part plant and thus part of the ecosystem, they constantly take in carbon dioxide due to their use of photosynthesis meaning that even with any pollution a big city like Celadon might have, they get rid of most if not all of it. It's also why certain grass-types like Oddish-line and even the Bulbasaur-lines are more commonly found there. From what I remember of one lecture Professor Oak did on Celadon city during school, the Bulbasaur-line were actually native to the forests and plains that once made up the area that Celadon city now sits on. It's only with human development and the migration of pokemon as a whole that the Bulbasaur-line aren't as commonly found in the wild anymore same as every other Starters,"

Steven nodded slowly, "I suppose that makes sense."

Vali flushed a bit as she realized she'd gone on a mini-rant, "Sorry about that."

"It fine," Steven waved off her apology, "Are the other main cities in Kanto like that? Where the gyms are one type of pokemon due to how high the population of that type is in the area,"

"While there is that, the gyms also use one type of pokemon both due to tradition and the gym leader's preference," Vali took out her pokedex and turned to the notes Professor Oak sent to every new trainer, "Take Pewter for example, it's mainly a rock-type gym. The Slate family has been the gym leaders of Pewter city since the founding of Kanto. They have generally used rock-types with the Geodude-line and Onix-line being their go to pokemon. On the other hand, we have Viridian which is a ground-type gym. The gym leader, Giovanni, has a preference for ground-types. Viridian is one of the few gyms that don't have a static type. In the past, it's been a normal, ice, dark, flying, and dragon-type gym. It changes depending on the gym leader's preference. In Kanto, two gym leaders of the same family can't run two seperate gyms whereas unlike other regions, our elite four can retire and become gym leaders,"

Steven hummed lightly, "I suppose the family thing is to keep rivalries from happening?"

Vali shook her head, "No though I suppose that's a lesser reason. Around the time Professor Oak became Kanto's regional professor, two gyms were discovered taking resources for the league under the guise of too big of a population and an increase in crime. In truth, the two gyms were under the control of a mob family via the gym leaders," She thought back to the article she'd read and what Professor Oak had said about it, "The two gym leaders were smuggling everything to the base of the mob family along with pokemon and people. Professor Oak had still be fresh from being the league champion and was called on by the new league champion for assistance as the drain on the League's resources was far too significant to ignore."

"So they have that rule to prevent it from happening again?" Steven summed up earning a nod, "I never would have guessed though isn't having former elite four members as gym leaders a bit too much?"

Vali shook her head, "The former elite four members becoming gym leaders will give any city under their jurisdiction even more protection than a regular gym leader can provide. In time of crisis, the former elite four member in question would have pokemon that could take the punishment that a gym leader's pokemon cannot," She put away her pokedex, "Anyway, it's mostly up to the elite four member if they become a gym leader. They would also need an open gym leader slot as well though Kanto have a rule that allows up to 20 active gyms inside the region only the eight most powerful gyms would be considered the main gyms thus allowing anyone who beats them to enter the Indigo conference without having to go through the mass of prelims where most trainers have to fight to earn a spot in the main conference."

"Which is why Professor Oak suggested only going after the other eight gyms once I finished my badge run if I felt up to it," Steven realized earning a nod, "I guess it's to also keep the populace interested and to weed out the run of the mill trainers that won't put on a good show,"

"And to let the League scouts see the most talented trainers at work," Vali was still shocked at how much work the League put into ensuring that they had the best of the best, "The League doesn't want to waste time training those that won't amount of much even with their help," She shook her head lightly, "I assume the same thing happens in Hoenn?"

"More or less," Steven ran a hand through his hair, "We should start moving. The Ponyta and Rapidash migration is going to be near Vermilion in a few days,"

* * *

The trip to Vermilion city took on average a week if you were coming from Saffron. At the pace Steven and Vali were taking, they would reach it in a week and a half. The Ponyta and Rapidash migration lasted a total of four days during which the many herds traveled to the southern areas of Kanto in preparation for the coming winter. It was also during this time that new herds formed from the young Ponyta and newly evolved Rapidash that had been born during the spring. While the new herds were forming, the normally docile and even tempered pokemon became fairly aggressive though less so than when it was their mating season which occurred during the tail end of winter into early spring. At this time of year, it was easier to catch one of the equine pokemon.

Vali wanted a Ponyta, but would catch a Rapidash if she needed to. Ponyta had an easier time getting used to humans whereas wild Rapidash disliked being around humans which often led to sightings of the wild equine pokemon to be almost as rare as Vulpix. She looked up from her pokedex as the ground began to rumble and become a bit unstable. She put her pokedex away as she moved towards the top of the hill with Steven and found her breath taken away at the sight of the many Rapidash and Ponyta racing across the plains. She breathed out, "There must over a hundred of them."

"Metagross says that there's almost 200 of them," Steven looked as awestruck as her.

Vali reached into her pocket and pulled out her camera before snapping pictures of the large herds of equine pokemon that were slowing down to a stop in the plains. By the time she was done, she murmured, "They're amazing."

"We need to approach them carefully," Steven said earning a nod as she put away the camera.

With careful steps, they slowly descended the hill making sure to keep their movements as slow as possible to avoid gaining the wrath of the equine pokemon. Most ignored them with the Rapidash shifting away from the two trainers with wary eyes, a few of the Ponyta let out a soft whicker. One of the braver Ponyta walked up to the two humans and nosed Vali prompting the witch to pull out one of the apples she had stashed in the top of her pack. She held it out to the Ponyta who looked at her with wide brown eyes as it slowly reached to take the apple. It chewed the apple thoughtfully before letting out a neigh and moving closer to lip at her hand likely hoping for another one. With a small smile, she offered it another apple which it took with a whiny. Another Ponyta trotted up along with what looked to be a newly evolved Rapidash that was smaller than a majority of the ones around. She fed each an apple before saying, "I don't have any more."

They made pitiful sounds and offered her puppy dog eyes earning a soft laugh from her. Vali felt her camera being removed from her pocket and glanced to the side to find Steven pointing it at her. Smiling, she reached out and gently scratched behind one of the Ponyta's ears startling it slightly before it leaned into her touch. Eventually, the Ponyta moved on to graze with their herds and Steven handed her camera back saying, "I'm surprised you didn't ask to battle one."

"I'd rather take the time to earn their trust and see if I can catch one without a battle," Vali said as she headed back towards the hill to sit down and take a minor break, "I'll see if one of them wants to battle later. You don't mind us staying here for a day or two, do you?"

"I don't mind," Steven shook his head as he followed her, "I didn't expect you to not try to battle one first,"

"There's also the fact that I want to meditate a bit and see if I can access my inner flame," Vali explained earning a curious look, "I haven't been able to access it all when I do meditate, so my thought is that I should be able to access it or at least get a grasp of it if I'm near a large quantity of fire-types. The herds won't be moving on for a few days which will give me the perfect chance to try out my idea,"

Vali found a dry patch that wasn't covered in grass, rocks, or loose dirt before she took a seat. Steven followed her example, "I suppose while you're doing that, I can see about training my Sandshrew to find evolutionary stones,"

"Then we should set up camp while we can, it'll be nice to have a small break while we can," Vali said looking at Balto as the Growlithe flopped onto the ground panting softly.

Balto had great stamina since he was walking beside her the most out of all her pokemon, but even he needed a break especially considering the fact that they'd been training quite a bit over the last few days in preparation for the herds. While she had hoped to catch one of the beautiful equines, she understood that preparing for battle was a very good idea.

* * *

Closing her eyes as she breathed in the almost hot air, Vali concentrated on her magic first. Magic to her felt like a river of warmth flowing through her alongside the blood in her veins. She followed the flow of her magic into her core which pulsed just under her beating heart and between her lungs. She settled there for a little while allowing it to soothe away the small aches and pains that had developed during the walk that day. She soothed the agitated parts of her magic caused by the incident with Sabrina and the warning she'd gotten by whatever sent her that vision. Once she felt almost completely relaxed, she focused elsewhere.

With Fawkes' feather on her chest and the massive amount of fire-types not far from her as a guide line, Vali searched through her body for the inner fire that lived there. It took patience for her to search through her entire being even with the guides she had, but eventually she managed to find it. She breathed out sharply at the blazing fire she felt within her that flickered and flared almost randomly. It seemed to fill her body and threatened to burn her to a crisp. Each breath she took seemed to make the fire flare hotter and hotter. Slowing her breathing down, she focused on the fact that the fire was a part of her. She was the fire and it was her. The fire flared once more before settling to a comfortable blaze. As she focused on keeping it there, she heard a gasp and opened her eyes to look at Steven, "Steven?"

"Vali, you..." Steven breathed out as he pointed at her.

Looking down at herself, it took everything inside of Vali to avoid screaming in shock at the fire that covered her skin. She forced herself to stay calm knowing that the fire wasn't burning her or anything around her. Taking a deep breath as she closed her eyes, she willed the fire to return to the core of her being. A chill swept through her body as she tried to seperate herself from the majority of the flames. By the time she opened her eyes again, she felt cold everywhere save for the area where her inner flame rested which was in between her magical core and heart. She looked at herself and sighed in relief at the fact she wasn't covered in flames anymore, "Well that was unexpected."

"I'm surprised they didn't burn anything," Steven sat down as he stared at her in shock along with all their pokemon.

Even Eevee's cold mask was gone as he stared at her in shocked awe, the grudging respect in his eyes for the power Vali showed off made her wonder what she would need to do to earn his trust. It was movement at the edge of camp that had her looking towards the herds only to jerk in surprise at how close many of the equine were. She stared at them in shock as she murmured, "S-steven?"

"Wh-" Steven cut himself off as he saw the crowd of equines shifting at the edge of camp, "Holy mother of Mew,"

"What are they doing?" Vali asked as she looked over the equines that seemed to be battling with their instincts for some reason.

Metagross let out a metallic grunt as they said, " _They are interested in you, Friend Vali. They have never met a human with an inner flame nor anyone outside of a pure fire-type to have such a strong inner flame untrained as it is."_

"Is that a bad thing?" Vali asked as she reached into her shirt to grab Fawkes' feather, "Will accessing my inner flame make it easier for psychic's to sense it?"

Metagross made a soft clicking sound, " _No, we do not believe it is a bad thing. If anything, it will likely assist in gaining one of them as a member of your pack. I do not believe accessing your inner flame will make it easier for those that do not know of its existence to sense it though I advise against trying to train it around humans."_

Vali nodded slowly relaxing at the fact that she hadn't ruined her chances at hiding her inner flame from those that would try to use her. She glanced at the equine pokemon, "So they're going to be watching us?" Metagross made a nodding motion, "Well that makes things interesting."

At the very least, Vali would probably end up getting a new team member which was the entire reason they were here.

* * *

Falling asleep turned out both harder and easier than it had been anytime Vali went to bed while traveling. The hard part was getting used to the sounds of the equine pokemon around the camp and the light of their manes. On the other hand, the heat they gave off chased away the chill that was starting to set in with the coming fall. The dreams she had that night were a confusing mass of fire and chaos with images of the volcano she'd seen in the vision flashing through her mind. She woke up shivering despite the heat of the massive amount of fire-types and her own pokemon curling around her save for Eevee. She wiped away the sweat coating her brow as she noticed that the sky was still dark and mentally sighed. Instead of attempting to go back to sleep, she decided to meditate due to the unbalanced feeling of her magic.

Steven looked concerned when he saw that Vali was awake before him. He looked even more concerned when she'd mentioned that the dreams revolved around the volcano and that she'd be up since before dawn. Instead of focusing on it especially since she couldn't talk about the volcano without her head hurting, she focused on getting Eevee more used to her as well as training her pokemon.

* * *

While with the herds, Vali spent time getting used to being around the equine pokemon as well as making notes on the various behaviors she saw. Unlike most herd bound creatures, the Rapidash and Ponyta didn't congregate around a single male or female. Instead, the herds had several males and females if not more depending on the size. Ponyta weren't herded into the middle of the various herds despite not having evolved into a Rapidash. Instead, they were encouraged to venture around and practice fight with one another. Newly evolved Rapidash were smaller than those already evolved and their horns weren't as large. Once a Ponyta finally evolved, it was surrounded by the various Rapidash who congratulated their newly evolved kin.

Vali saw many fights between both Rapidash and Ponyta. The Rapidash fights were between the younger ones that had either just evolved or were finally being pushed from their old herds. The fights were often brutal and left many injuries though rarely were their broken bones. The Ponyta fights were merely play fights or attempts to evolve. The older Rapidash tended to avoid fighting for the most part, but some did get into fights though they were mostly to keep their skills up. She also noticed that those that didn't fight had more than a few scars marring their creamy coats. It was very interesting to watch them interact and she ended up writing quite a bit in one of her journals knowing that Professor Oak would enjoy reading it.

The dreams didn't leave Vali alone and sometimes appeared during her meditation. It left her a little bad tempered though she did try to avoid taking it out on anyone. If she got too annoyed, she took a walk among the herd which always managed to soothe her temper. Some of the dreams were vivid causing her to jolt awake sweating heavily and attempting to pat out fires that weren't actually there. By the time the herd was ready to move on, she was ready to pull her hair out.

* * *

On the last day that the herd was going to be in the area, Vali found herself challenged by a Rapidash covered in scars with a horn twice what most Rapidash had showing that it was older than any of the ones she'd been near. She looked at the Rapidash as her pokemon stared at it with wide eyes and knew that this was a test. The goal wasn't to beat the Rapidash, but show it what she could do. Nodding, she turned to her pokemon, "Sandshrew, I want you to stay out of this. You're not ready for a battle like this."

Sandshrew looked a bit disappointed, but moved to join Eevee earning a glance from the normal-type. Vali turned to the old Rapidash as Steven asked, "Are you sure you want to do this Vali?"

"Yes. The goal of this battle isn't to win, but rather show the elder what we've got," Vali looked at the elder with a small smile, "I hope you don't mind me having Sandshrew sit out. She's still young and hasn't been training seriously for very long. I'd rather avoid her getting unnecessarily hurt," The Rapidash tossed it's head with a whiny, "Then let's start. Celina, you first my friend," Celina took flight and focused on the elder Rapidash as the area around them cleared, "Start off with Swift,"

Celina quickly released a powerful beam of stars that headed right towards the Elder. The Elder reared before taking off easily dodging the attack. Celina cut off her attack and headed towards the Elder using Aerial Ace mixed with Steel Wing. The Elder took the attack with ease before using how close Celina was to use Take Down on her earning a shriek of pain from the Pidgeotto. Grimacing as Celina was tossed away from the elder from the force of the attack, Vali contemplated what she should do. Even though Celina had settled into her new body and the power it brought her, she was still lacking in the move pool department.

Celina shakily rose into the sky with a defiant shriek and shot another Swift attack towards the Elder before following up with her Steel Wing/Aerial Ace combo. The Elder easily took the attacks and tossed a powerful Flamethrower toward Celina. Celina managed to get away with only a few burns, but they obviously hurt her. Swallowing, Vali called out, "Celina, come back. You've done enough for now," Celina flew back over and shakily landed looking disappointed with herself, "We've still got a lot to do before you're ready to face a pokemon of the Elder's strength, but I know you'll do it," Celina perked up and nodded, "Pikachu, Electro ball. Show the Elder your speed."

Pikachu nodded and raced towards the Elder. He charged up an Electro Ball and sent it towards the Elder before disappearing into his Quick Attack. He shot off Thunder Shocks and got in close with a few Thunder Punches. The Elder took each attack and made a lazy attempt to burn the mouse pokemon with a Flamethrower. Pikachu showed off his cleverness and disappeared into the ground with Dig. The Elder retaliated with Stomp creating a rather odd game of Wack-a-mole with Pikachu as the mole. This continued for a little while as Pikachu took potshots at the elder whenever he could which seemed to amuse the elder just a bit. Eventually, the Elder caught Pikachu with a horn attack to the gut and another Stomp causing the mouse to go flying. Vali reacted quickly and caught Pikachu before he could hit the ground. She grimaced at the blood coming out of the small wound the Elder's horn had caused and quickly handed Pikachu over to Steven, "Please take care of the bleeding and make sure nothings broken."

"I will," Steven held Pikachu carefully in his arms and walked over to where Metagross had the med-kit from her bag sitting.

"Thank you," Vali murmured before looking between Smaug and Balto prompting her starter to walk forward spitting out an ember, "Smaug, Smoke Screen. Hit where you can and don't get cocky. The Elder is on another level from us,"

Smaug nodded flexing his claws with a smirk. Clearly, he liked the idea of facing such a strong opponent if only to see where he stood. Smaug released thick clouds of smoke towards the Elder before rushing forward with his Dual Claw attack. Vali listened to the battle as she bent down to pet Balto. Balto silently stared forward with his ears perked up. Smaug was much like Celina with his somewhat limited move-pool though that was mostly due to the fact that the Charmander-line were somewhat limited when it came to their move-pool. Of all the Kanto starters, it had one of the smallest move-pools though it more than made up for it with the amount of potential power it could have.

Balto whined as the Elder let out a whiny and Smaug was sent flying through the smoke clouds. A swirling mass of fire erupted in the middle of the smoke clearing it away to reveal the Elder. Smaug growled as he pushed himself up and darted forward as he spat out multiple Ember at the Elder. To Vali's surprise, the Ember attacks seemed to be combining into an almost constant stream. Was Smaug getting close to learning Flamethrower? She watched as Smaug's jaws were engulfed in flames as he bit down on one of the Elder's leg. The Elder bucked and sent Smaug flying with a Swift attack to the face. Smaug landed heavily on the ground, but quickly attempted to get up with as a red aura covered his body. Vali quickly made her way over to him, "Smaug, that's enough," Smaug continued to struggle with fire in his eyes, "Smaug, I know you want to keep fighting, but that's enough for now. Please calm down."

Balto made his way over to Smaug and nuzzled the angry lizard. Slowly, Smaug began to calm down and he nodded to Vali with a strained groan. Balto nodded to him before stepping towards the Elder with a determined look on his face. She helped Smaug over to Steven as he said, "I've never seen Smaug's ability activate before."

"We've never run into a situation where it was needed before," Vali helped Smaug sit down, "I'm definitely having them all thoroughly checked at the next pokemon center. The Elder is on par with some of Professor Oak's pokemon if not a bit stronger," She looked at Balto as her Growlithe growled at the Elder and settled into an attack stance, "Balto," Balto's ear flicked towards her, "Do your best. Use everything you have, I know we haven't used Morning Sun much if at all, but I think this situation calls for it. If it gets too much, I want you to back out," Balto nodded with a low growl, "Start off with Ember in Dig and Fire Fang,"

Balto howled before darting forward as he spit out Ember. The Elder dodged the Ember as Balto used Dig. The Elder's ears twitched probably attempting to hear where Balto was. Balto shot out of the ground underneath the Elder and latched onto one of the Rapidash's front legs as the old pokemon attempted to move away. The Elder let out a loud neigh of displeasure and attempted to get Balto off. Balto held on tight until the Elder's leg tossed him into the air and he used Iron Tail as he came down. Balto's Iron tail slammed into the Elder's head which caused the old Rapidash to stumble. Balto sent an Ember towards the Elder as he jumped off and used Dig to reenter the ground. The Elder shook their head wildly for a few seconds before snorting and stamping on the ground. The Elder sent a Flamethrower into the hole Balto had dug which earned a small yelp from the puppy pokemon. Balto shot out of the ground behind the Elder with his Fire Fang charged up only for the Elder to disappear from his sight earning a confused look from the Growlithe.

Balto landed on the ground with a confused look on his face and glanced back at Vali. Vali frowned slightly as she looked around before remembering that Rapidash were able to use Agility, "Underground now!"

Balto shot towards one of the pre-made holes only for the Elder to appear behind him and use Take Down. Balto went flying with a yelp, but managed to correct his body so that he landed on his paws when he began to descend. Balto slid across the ground for a few seconds before coming to a stop. He whined lifting up a paw to reveal that it had been scratched raw. He shook his head lightly before closing his eyes and a golden aura covered his body as the sunlight over him seemed to focus on Balto. When it faded, Balto looked a bit better and lifted his paw to show that it wasn't raw anymore. Vali would be soaking his paws in potions when this was over because even with Morning Sun's healing ability, he had still scratched his paws raw and they were likely hurting him. Balto disappeared into the ground again. The Elder grunted and suddenly there were multiple copies of it. When Balto reappeared with Fire coating his mouth, he paused with wide eyes allowing the Elder to use Take Down on him again. Balto was sent flying towards her and she caught him as the copies of the Elder disappeared. Looking down at Balto, she grimaced at how beaten up he was. She made her way over to Steven and immediately dug out some potions after setting Balto gently onto the ground.

* * *

After healing her pokemon, Vali picked up two of her potions while making a mental note that she would need to buy more. She walked over to the Elder who stared at her and she said, "Do you mind if I heal you a bit? These sting, but they'll make it so you're not so injured."

The Elder eyed her before bobbing their head and Vali began healing the worst of the damage her pokemon had done. It was during this that Vali figured out that the Elder was a male. Once she finished helping him, she moved back to her bag and pulled out two Oran berries that she offered to the Elder. The Elder took the berries before disappearing into the herds. She wiped away the sweat coating her brow as Steven commented, "You did pretty good considering how strong he was."

"Yeah," Vali looked over her pokemon and dropped to the ground.

"You okay?" Steven asked her with a frown.

Vali nodded as she gently scratched behind Balto's ears, "I'm fine just a bit disappointed in myself. Even if I didn't try to be cocky, I could have done more to help them during the battle," Balto nuzzled her as Sandshrew walked over and settled on her lap, "The battle just showed me that I need to find a good medium between giving orders and letting my pokemon follow their instincts."

"At least you found that out now while there isn't an opponent that will take advantage of that," Steven offered as he sat down beside her.

"True," Vali looked over her pokemon with a sigh.

* * *

The next day saw the two trainers and their pokemon cleaning up the camp they'd spent the last few days in. Some of the herds were already gone or leaving which meant that it was time they moved on. Vali returned all of her pokemon knowing that none of them were up for the coming walk. The only ones that could walk were Sandshrew and Eevee. Eevee still didn't trust her and Sandshrew was a shiny pokemon would would draw the wrong kind of attention. She pulled on her bag as Steven said, "I guess you're not getting a Ponyta or Rapidash."

"This time," Vali wasn't too put out, "I'll try again next year,"

It was as they began walking through the herds towards the other side of the plains where the path to Vermilion lay that the Elder reappeared. The two paused as he walked up with a Ponyta bouncing around him. The Elder paused not far from them before nickering and pushing the Ponyta towards Vali. The Ponyta raced up to her and she realized it was one of the ones she'd given an apple to yesterday. She glanced at Steven as Metagross' voice echoed through her mind, _"The Elder bids you to take the young horse with you and wishes you luck."_

"You want to come with me?" Vali asked causing the Ponyta to neigh and bob its head and she took out a pokeball, "Okay," She held up the ball and tapped the Ponyta's forehead with it, "Welcome to the team, my new friend," The ball vibrated in her hand for a few moments before a click sounded signaling a successful capture and she looked at Steven, "Guess we were wrong,"

"Seems like it," Steven chuckled with a smile.

Vali released her new friend and the Ponyta whinnied as it pranced around shaking its head, "You'll get used to it."

The Ponyta shot her a doubtful look before turning to race towards the Elder prompting the two trainers to follow. The two equine nosed each other as two Rapidash and a few Ponyta walked up. The two trainers watched as the equine pokemon nuzzled each other and nickered as they butted their heads against her new Ponyta. It was probably their own goodbye ritual. Vali took a few pictures as Steven muttered, "Kind of cute."

"Mhmm," She hummed in agreement before putting her camera away as the group broke apart and her Ponyta wandered over, "They were were family, weren't they?" Ponyta nodded and nosed at her pockets, "I don't have anymore apples, but I promise I'll give you some when I do," She looked up at the Elder, "Thank you for allowing me to take Ponyta with me. I'll do my best to make them into the best Rapidash they can be and bring them back to see you at some point,"

The Elder bobbed his head before jerking it towards the other side of the plains clearly wishing for them to move on. When they reached the other side, they paused and watched as the Elder reared with a neigh that seemed to echo through the air before taking off. The herds followed his lead and soon were moving on once more. Ponyta took a step forward as if to join them before tossing it's head and snorting. Vali placed a hand on Ponyta's shoulder earning a look from it, "I promise that we'll be back again."

* * *

It was after they'd set up camp for the night and everyone had eaten after being introduced to Ponyta that Vali took out her pokedex. Scanning Ponyta, they listened as the pokedex said:

 _Ponyta, the_ _Fire Horse Pokemon. Ponyta is very weak at birth. It can barely stand up. This Pokémon becomes stronger by stumbling and falling to keep up with its parent. It runs in fields and mountains all day. Its hind legs, which have hooves that are harder than diamond, kick back at any presence it senses behind it._

 _This Ponyta is Female and has the ability Flame Body*. This Ponyta knows Growl, Tackle, Tail Whip, Ember, Flame Wheel, and High Horsepower._

 _*Hidden Ability. Hidden Abilities are randomly occurring abilities among various Pokemon species. Please contact your regional Professor at the earliest convenience._

Vali stared at her pokedex than at her Ponyta before muttering, "Well, I didn't expect that."

"Looks like you really are lucky, Vali," Steven said with a chuckle.

Vali shook her head and put away her pokedex before asking her new Ponyta, "Do you want a nickname?"

Ponyta nodded excitedly and they began offering her names. Despite her seemingly carefree attitude, Ponyta was not an easy pokemon to name. Eventually, Vali ended up offering up 'Arwen'. Ponyta pranced around the clearing seemingly pleased with the name. Steven looked at Vali and asked, "Where did that name from from?"

"A book series by the same author who wrote the book with Smaug's namesake in it," Vali answered watching the newly named Arwen practically dance, "I can't quite remember everything in the series, but that's one of the names that stuck with me. I have a feeling that most of the names I'm going to be giving my pokemon will probably come from those books,"

* * *

Arwen had a seemingly endless pool of energy prompting Vali to have her do sprints while they walked. When they took a break, Vali had Arwen do runs around the clearings they ended up in or around the area where they were sitting. Usually by the end of the day, Arwen was able to focus on training and tended to be able to fall asleep fairly easily. Arwen was an out going pokemon that helped Sandshrew come out of her shell somewhat. Due both being fairly new to training, she put them together. For both, she had them working on stamina which Arwen seemed to have in spades which made sense since she had to keep up with the herds during migration not to mention her parents. The two also worked on perfecting their attacks which was a bit harder for Sandshrew due to her timid nature, but Arwen and her other pokemon offering support helped her keep from holding back. Of course, Sandshrew would probably always be a little bit timid, but that was just fine by her.

Vali's other pokemon were a bit annoyed by her not wanting them to train, but none protested too much as they were very sore from their battle against the Elder. During the time it took them to reach Vermilion, Vali and Steven found an increase in the amount of trainers they came across while traveling though not all of them challenged the two. Vali used Arwen and Sandshrew against those that Steven didn't go up again. The two didn't do too badly considering that it was the first time either of them were in a trainer battle and it being Sandshrew first time actually battling. Thankfully, the trainers with water-types always ended up battling Steven which was a relief considering the fact that she didn't think either Arwen or Sandshrew would do well at all. Eventually, they reached Vermilion city which was a relief for all of them.

* * *

Vermilion city was one of the largest in Kanto due to the fact it acted as a main port for all sea travel into Kanto and the only place you could reliably get a boat to Cinnabar Island. It was home to one of the few military bases still active in Kanto though it mostly acted a facility to help rehabilitate pokemon that were either needed to relearn how to battle or needed to recover from the abuse their former trainers put them through. Lt. Surge headed the facility which cared for those pokemon that were recovering from the last civil war between Kanto and Johto which had occurred ten years ago. Considering the fact that Surge had been apart of said civil war, it was generally accepted that he was one of the scariest gym leaders to face and that you should always try your luck against him before hitting three badges.

Walking through the surprisingly crowded city after returning Arwen, Vali commented, "There's a lot of people here despite the fact that it isn't even close to the Indigo Conference."

"Maybe there's something going on," Steven suggested earning a slight shrug.

"I see the pokemon center," Vali spotted the red roof and pokeball symbol over the crowds, "Let's get checked in, I want to have my pokemon checked out and a shower,"

Steven nodded in agreement and they headed through the rather thick crowd. Once they reached the pokemon center and got inside, Vali was nearly deafened by the level of noise and amount of people inside. She back peddled a bit prompting Steven to wrap a comforting arm around her shoulder's which helped ground her. They got in the long-line as one Nurse Joy, a severe looking woman with faded pink hair set in a bun, barked out, "Quiet down before I throw you out!"

Immediatly, the noise level dropped and Vali relaxed a bit though she still stayed close to Steven mostly because the amount of people was a bit too much. When they reached the front desk, they found two Nurse Joy's standing there. The younger one smiled warmly at them, "Welcome to the pokemon center, what can I do for you?"

"Can you heal our pokemon?" Steven asked as they took out their pokedexs and handed them to the woman.

"Of course!" The Nurse Joy took out two trays.

Vali spoke up, "Nurse Joy," The pink haired woman looked at her, "Most of my pokemon ended up facing a really strong Rapidash while the herds were migrating near here. While both of us made sure my pokemon were well taken care of, I would like it if you can take a closer look at them and see if we missed anything."

"Of course," Nurse Joy nodded with a warm smile, "Thank you for warning me. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"We need two rooms," Steven answered earning a nod.

"Give me one moment," Nurse Joy said as she slipped away.

Vali and Steven placed their pokeballs onto the trays. Steven watched her hesitate for a moment before keeping Eevee's pokeball on her belt, "You're not going to have him checked out?"

"I'll do it later when there aren't so many people," Vali replied shooting a glance towards the crowd, "What's going on?"

"The League has organized a tournament to celebrate the anniversary of the Kanto-Johto Civil war's end ten years ago," The older Nurse Joy, who reminded Vali of Professor McGonagall, answered, "One is happening in each of the main cities though the prizes and layout of the tournament differ depending on the city,"

"When was it announced?" Vali asked curiously.

"Two weeks ago," The Nurse Joy answered, "Would you like to sign up? It's starting in three days and there are only a few more spots left,"

Vali thought about it before nodding, "Sure, it might be fun. How is it set up?"

"The tournament here in Vermilion is divided between genders and split again between the amount of gym badges the participants have. Everyone who has up to four will go against each other and everyone who has up to eight will go against one another," The Nurse Joy answered as she handed over the sign up sheet that Vali signed and handed to Steven who signed it as well, "The matches are going to be one on one for the first two rounds and two on two for the last ones. If you win against your division, you'll be facing whoever won the other division. The same will happen to the runner ups until the top three of each gender division has been found,"

"And the prizes?" Steven asked as he handed the sign up sheet back to the Nurse Joy.

"The main prize for either division is a mystery, but knowing the league it's going to be an interesting one," Nurse Joy snorted softly, "First place of both divisions get three Luxury Balls, two ultra balls, three evolutionary items of their choice, and a prize of 10,000 Poke. Second place gets two ultra balls, two evolutionary stone, and a prize of 5,000 poke. Third place gets one ultra ball, one evolutionary stone, and a prize of 1,500 poke,"

Vali whistled at the amount, "No wonder so many people want to participate."

The Nurse Joy that had taken their pokedexs returned with a pair of keys and an apologetic look, "Unfortunately, we don't have any single rooms left. All we have are a few doubles."

Steven and Vali looked at one another before shrugging. They had been camping together, so it wasn't anything they'd done before. The older Nurse Joy took their pokedexs and placed them in the slots attached to her computer. She did something as the younger Nurse Joy handed them their keys. The older Nurse Joy took the pokedexs out when they were ejected from the slots and handed them to the two, "Here you two are, you're now officially in the tournament. You just need to check in at the arena by the base in three days by 10 AM. Have a nice day."

The two moved through the crowd and headed up the stairs. They found their room fairly quickly and got inside. Vali set her bag down on one of the beds and took off her boots, "I shudder to think about what the League Conference will be like."

"If it's like the Ever Grande Conference, it shouldn't be too bad once you get checked in," Steven set down his bag, "Why don't you take the first shower? I'm going to start my laundry and call my father,"

"You sure?" Vali asked as she unzipped her bag and pulled out the storage container where she'd put most of her personal supplies/money into.

"I'm sure," Steven offered her a light smile, "Just don't take too long,"

"No problem," Vali got her supplies and headed into the bathroom to take her shower.

* * *

When Vali went to collect her pokemon, she was given Arwen and Sandshrew before being told that the others would take until tomorrow before they would be fully healed. She understood and thanked the Nurse Joy. She also got Steven's pokemon before heading to get something to eat. With how crowded it was, she merely picked up her food and headed back up to the room where Steven was just leaving the shower. He offered her a raised eyebrow and she said, "It's a bit too crowded."

Steven offered her an understanding look and they began eating after releasing the pokemon that could fit in the room. Eevee and Arwen weren't very pleased by the close quarters. It took a few treats and Metagross confirming how crowded it was downstairs for them to accept it. Eevee decided to eat his food in one of the corners as far from Steven and Vali as possible. Arwen tossed her head a bit and snorted before settling down for her food. She promised to take the Ponyta for a run once she found a place that wouldn't be too crowded or close to the water.

* * *

Vali talked to Delia and an eager Ash who was starting school next week with Gary. She greatly enjoyed catching up with the two especially when it came to hearing about Ash's latest exploits. After awhile, they ended the call and she made the call to Professor Oak. One of the aid's answered, "Hello-Oh hey, it's Vali."

"Hey, Trent," Vali greeted him, "Mind patching me through to Professor Oak?"

"Sure, sure," Trent agreed with a light nod, "The Professor's pretty eager to talk to you. Something about an interesting note in your pokedex data,"

"Thanks, Trent," Vali leaned back in her chair while she waited for the call to transfer.

Professor Oak answered ten minutes later looking more than a little burnt, "Ah, Vali. It's nice to see you."

"Are you alright, Professor?" Vali asked eyeing the burnt edges of his hair and the ash coating part of his face.

Professor Oak nodded with a tense smile, "I'm fine. One of your classmates picked up an Elekid that didn't take too kindly to them and sent it over to the lab. It recently annoyed some of the Growlithe pups. Everyone is fine, but..."

"Foul tempered pokemon are difficult to deal with," Vali finished earning a nod, "I was calling both because I wanted to tell you about my progress with Eevee and to talk about my new Ponyta,"

Professor Oak perked up at her words, "Let's start with Eevee as the conversation about your Ponyta will probably take longer."

Vali nodded and began explaining what she'd been doing with Eevee. She mentioned the deal that she'd made with him which Professor Oak approved of. When it came to pokemon that distrusted humans, it was best to make deals with them. In Eevee's case, it would do wonders towards helping him recover from his abuse. She talked about Eevee's attempted attack on Steven and that she'd managed to prevent any accidents from occurring by reminding Eevee of his promise. Eevee still didn't like Steven or Vali, but he seemed to tolerate them both. She mentioned what her pokemon had been doing as well, "They give him their favorite berries and try to include him even if it's just by sitting next to him. I think he likes Sandshrew the most at the moment and he tolerates Pikachu fairly well. He stays away from Arwen, my new Ponyta, but I think that's because he doesn't know how to deal with such a hyper active pokemon."

"At the very least, it seems like he's settling in," Professor Oak offered earning a nod, "Now about, Arwen, that's your new Ponyta's name correct?"

"Yeah, it was the only one she accepted out of all the ones I offered. For such a carefree pokemon, she was hard to find a name for," Vali shook her head, "So what exactly is a hidden ability, Professor?"

"Much like the shiny gene or the king gene, the hidden ability of a pokemon is a quirk hidden within the DNA of a pokemon," Professor Oak explained earning a nod as Vali took out the pad of paper and pen she'd brought along to write the information he'd given her down, "Much like with the shiny and king genes, we do not know what causes the pokemon with the hidden ability to have it instead of one of the normal abilities. What we do know is that a pokemon with a hidden ability will more often than not have offspring with that ability,"

"So it's likely one of Arwen's parents has that ability?" Vali asked earning a nod, "I wonder if the Elder has that ability,"

"The Elder?" Professor Oak looked at her curiously.

Vali launched into the story of what happened when Steven and her had found the herds. By the end of it, she was glad that she'd had the foresight to get a private booth as well as bring a bottle of water with her. Drinking some of the water, she said, "My pokemon are fine if a bit beaten up. I didn't let Sandshrew fight since I knew that she'd likely get killed if I had."

"I've never heard of a Rapidash like that," Professor Oak muttered with a frown.

"It's likely that my inner fire drew him to us," Vali flushed lightly, "I'm still trying to figure out how I didn't burn anything,"

"I definitely want to see this ability of yours when you come back to Pallet," Professor Oak commented earning a nod, "Did anything else happen?"

Vali hesitated before saying, "When the thing with Sabrina happened, I had some kind of vision. I can't talk about it because something causes me a lot of pain when I try."

Professor Oak looked alarmed at the prospect, "Have you had more visions like it?"

"In my dreams, but they only happened while we were with the herds," Vali pressed a hand against where Fawkes' feather was settled beneath her shirt and felt a sense of calm roll over her, "While I may be wrong, I think that if I'm around a lot of fire types, I'll have visions,"

"I don't like the sound of this, Vali," Professor Oak looked worried.

Vali offered the old man that was quickly becoming a grandfather figure to her a warm smile, "I don't think whatever is sending me these visions is doing it to hurt me. I think...no, I know that whatever is doing this knows what exactly is going on with me and wants to help me," She closed her eyes as Fawkes' feather seemed to pulse slightly, "I have a feeling in my gut that I need to follow those visions and find whatever is calling me."

Professor Oak sighed prompting Vali to open her eyes, "I still don't like the sound of this, Vali."

"Professor, if it helps, I'm not going to try and find the source of these vision for awhile," Vali offered earning a slightly relieved look, "I want to finish my badge run and compete in the Indigo conference before I do anything. I'm not going to rush in especially when I don't know all the facts,"

"Keep me posted, Vali," Professor Oak told her earning a nod, "I take it your in Vermilion now. Have you signed up for the tournament?"

"Yeah, Steven did too," Vali was actually eager to see how she did, "It'll be a great way to get used to crowds of people and battling in front of them. It'll give my pokemon and I a good chance to face strong opponents especially if we manage to win in our division,"

Professor Oak smiled at that, "I wish you the best of luck. I'm going to warn you that there will be participants from other regions as well. Make a note of any interesting pokemon and scan it with your dex if you have a chance. I haven't uploaded the national upgrade into your pokedex, but I'll be happy to identify any pokemon you come across during the tournament."

"Noted," Vali looked back down at her note pad before asking, "Professor, do I need to do any special training with Arwen?"

"Not to my knowledge, but I would enjoy it if you made note of her growth. With how rare it is to fine a pokemon with a hidden ability especially in Kanto, I can't pass up the chance to study her," Professor Oak replied earning a soft laugh from Vali before grimacing as a low boom sounded, "And it looks like I need to go take care of things here. Be careful and call me if you need anything, Vali,"

"You too Professor," Vali replied and the call ended.

* * *

The morning of the tournament dawned bright and early. Despite the early hour, Vali was excited for the coming battles and couldn't wait to see how she matched up with everyone. Steven was eager as well though he hid it with a small smile as he watched her practically skip as they made their way towards the arena. Despite the anxiety she was feeling, she was eager to battle new pokemon especially if Professor Oak was right and there were pokemon from other regions in the tournament. The possibility of what the main prizes could be only increased her eagerness. If she could manage to get at least third, she would be happy since it would mean she had a fire stone to evolve Balto when the time came. While he was still far from reaching his peak as a Growlithe, she wanted to have a fire stone on hand if only to motivate him even more when training/battling.

Even at eight thirty in the morning, the city of Vermilion was still fairly active though it looked like most of the activity was firmly at the docks where ship workers were working. Upon reaching the arena, they joined the forming lines that led from the check in area. It didn't take long for Vali to reached the front of the line and she handed over her pokedex as when the worker asked for it and said, "Valkyrie Potter of Pallet Town."

"Hello, Valkyrie," The worker smiled warmly at her, "Just take this pass and head through that door," The worker held out the pass and pointed towards the double doors that led into the arena, "Another worker will be there to show you to the waiting room for your division. Good Luck and have fun,"

"Thank you," Vali took the pass and her pokedex before heading towards the doors she'd been pointed to.

Steven joined her halfway to the doors, "What number are you?"

"24. You?" Vali glanced at him.

"30," Steven answered holding up his pass.

They reached the doors and walked inside where two workers were waiting. The female worker smiled at Vali, "If you'll follow me."

"Good luck, Steven," Vali told him as she began to follow of the worker.

"Good luck to you as well, Vali," Steven replied as he followed the male worker.

Vali was led to an area that had two large doors and the worker asked, "Let me see your pass," Vali showed it to her and was pointed to the door with a paper three on top of it, "That's your waiting area. The League asks that you avoid causing any fights while in the waiting area and to keep your pokemon in their pokeballs until you're on the battle field."

"Right," Vali pulled the door open, "Thank you,"

"No problem," The Worker offered her a cheerful smile, "And good luck!"

Vali walked inside and found a small crowd of girls around her age already inside. She walked towards an area near the back that was relatively empty only to pause as she heard, "Valkyrie Potter, is that you?"

Vali inwardly groaned at the slightly high pitch voice before plastering a smile on her face and turning to find one of her former classmate, "Ellen, I didn't expect to see you here."

"I didn't expect to see you either," The dark green haired girl eyed with a little disdain, "I thought you weren't taking your journey just yet,"

Vali shrugged lightly, "I found a good traveling partner."

"Who? Max?" Ellen sneered a bit reminding Vali a bit too much of Draco Malfoy, "That geek with the Bidoof teeth?"

"No, someone else," Vali yawned softly, "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to sit down,"

With that, Vali headed to the area she'd been planning to sit in only to sigh when Ellen followed her, "How many pokemon have you caught? I've caught thirty four already."

"Seven," Vali grimaced as Ellen let out a laugh.

"Seven? You failed to catch more than seven?" Ellen shook her head with a mean smile on her face, "That's pathetic,"

"Seeing as I'm going for quality rather than quantity, I'm doing better than you," Vali took her seat and offered Ellen a cold look, "Have you even seen the first pokemon you caught lately? Or checked to see how their doing? It's very likely that Professor Oak released them or found them a trainer that won't abandon them once their use is over,"

"How dare y-" Ellen raised her hand as if to slap Vali only for it to be grabbed by an older girl with mocha skin.

The older girl's crimson eyes and white hair had Vali wondering here she was from as the girl said, "I believe we were told not to start fights. If you truly wish to settle whatever differences you have, wait until you're on the battle field or battle once the tournament is over."

Ellen scowled and yanked her hair from the older girl's hand before glaring at Vali, "This isn't over, Potter."

Ellen stalked off to a corner where Vali could see a few more of her female classmates sitting. They all glared at her making the witch roll her eyes before she looked at the older girl, "Thank you for that."

"It's no trouble," The older girl smiled a bit, "I am Zaria Warner. I'm from the Oblivia region. You?"

"Valkyrie Potter and I'm from Pallet town," Vali introduced herself, "Call me Vali,"

Zaria's eyes widened a bit before her smile became a bit mischievous, "You wouldn't happen to be related to Sirius Black, are you?"

"He's my godfather though we are related somehow," Vali looked at her curiously, "How do you know Sirius?"

"My cousin's a ranger that works with him sometimes," Zaria explained earning a nod, "So is it true that you're a fire-type master in training?"

"Trying to be," Vali answered as Zaria took a seat next to her, "Why?"

"I'm trying to become a dark-type master in training," Zaria explained with a small laugh, "If we don't battle during the tournament, would you mind battling me later on?"

"Sure," Vali agreed with a slight grin, "I'm always up for a battle. Are you just here for the tournament or are you here to battle Surge as well?"

"I'm going to try battling Surge soon though it'll definitely wait until the tournaments done and the city empties of all these people," Zaria answered with an eye roll, "Honestly, it gives me a headache,"

Vali was starting to like her, "Definitely, I don't really like being in huge crowds of people, so this is a bit much for me."

Zaria and Vali talked while the room slowly began to fill up. Vali learned quite a bit for her new companion. Zaria was thirteen, but had only started her journey this year because she managed to escape her over-protective mother's clutches with the help of her rather busy father. Zaria had a Zorua for a starter that had been with her since it had hatched when she was ten. Zaria hated spicy food, but absolutely adored bitter foods. Zaria was a lot like her in how she took mostly after her father.

* * *

When it was 10 AM, the TV screens lining the front wall of the room lit up and the pictures of the various competitors appeared. The announcer began to explain how things were going to go, "Two battles from each gender division will occur at a time, the winner from those battles will move onto the next round. If a pokemon faints, it is out. If there's a tie, no one moves onto the next round. A twenty minute break will occur after the first round to allow all those moving to the next round to heal their pokemon and plan their strategies. Good luck to everyone!"

Vali focused on the TV as the various pictures were scrambled. Eventually, they finished and Vali found that she would be in the third battle of the first round against a girl with long red hair and light purple eyes by the name of Yuki Evans. Zaria whistled softly, "Looks like I'm up first."

"Good luck, Zaria," Vali murmured earning a mischievous grin.

"Thanks and good luck to you as well," Zaria offered in return with a small laugh.

Steven was also up first, so Vali got a bit closer to the screens to watch. The screens would shift between the battles thus allowing everyone to get a good look at their opponents and see some fun battles. Zaria's battle was against one of her classmates who was using an Oddish. Steven's battle was against a boy around his own age with spiky black hair tipped with a bright Purple and teal eyes that went by the name of Satoshi Yamamoto. Funnily enough both Zaria and Satoshi used Zorua as their first pokemon. Zaria's battle ended fairly quickly since her classmates Oddish didn't seem to want to listen to the girl at all. Steven's battle against Satoshi was fairly exciting with Steven using Skarmory. Satoshi started the battle off with Shadow Ball which Skarmory dodged seemingly without any effort before retaliating with Swift which the Zorua attempted to dodge only to end up being hit by two of the stars sending it flying. Skarmory followed up with a devastating Steel Wing that sent the Zorua to the ground rather harshly. Satoshi grimaced, "Mika, are you okay?" The Zorua stumbled to it's feet with a low grunt and glared at Skarmory, "Use Double Team and Shadow Ball!"

Mika the Zorua seemed to vibrate for a few seconds as copies of it appeared before they began to shoot Shadow Balls at Skarmory. Skarmory dodged the attacks as Steven called out, "Clear them away with Air Cutter!"

Skarmory beat her wings sending razor sharp gusts of wind towards the various Zorua. A boom sounded as they hit the ground kicking up dirt. When it faded, Mika the Zorua was trembling with the effort it took to stay up only to faint when it attempted to charge up a Shadow Ball. Satoshi returned Mika the Zorua and shook hands with Steven before the screen switched to the other matches.

* * *

Vali forced away the anxiety that bubbled up in her stomach at the sight of at least a hundred people in the stands as she reached her trainer box. Yuki Evans stood across from her with a slight smile, "Bonjour, Valkyrie."

"Hello, Yuki," Vali greeted the girl with a light smile.

The referee called out, "This is a one on one battle between Yuki Evans of Vaniville Town in Kalos and Valkyrie Potter of Pallet Town in Kanto. Trainers release your pokemon."

"It's time to battle, Ember!" Yuki called out and a fox-like creature Vali had never seen before appeared, "Ember's a Fennekin which is the fire-type starter in Kalos,"

Fennekin were fox-like quadrupeds mostly covered in light yellow fur. They had dark red tufts of fur sticking out of their ears with a puffy tail tipped in the same color. They had a white muzzle and bright red eyes. Vali nodded as she palmed Balto's pokeball having promised him the first battle, "She's a beautiful pokemon," Yuki offered her a light smile, "Come out and battle with me, my friend!"

Balto appeared and barked as his tail wagged earning a few coos from the crowd. Yuki looked at Balto with a raised eyebrow, "A fire-type versus a fire-type?"

"I'm trying to become a fire-type master plus I promised Balto to use him first," Vali replied earning a small nod.

The Referee raised his hand, "Are both trainers ready?" They nodded with matching grins, "Start!"

"Balto, let's kick this battle off with a game of hide and seek!" Vali called out earning a bark and Balto quickly began digging through the dirt platform the pokemon were battling on.

Yuki frowned a bit, "Ember, use Howl and keep your ears peeled for that Growlithe."

Ember the Fennekin nodded before she let out a howl that causing a wave of red wave to go over her body. Balto popped out of the ground underneath her and slammed his glowing tail into Ember. Ember was tossed to the side, but quickly righted herself as Vali called out, "Keep it up with Hide and Seek, Balto."

Balto disappeared into the ground again as Yuki's frown deepened, "Ember, are you okay?" Ember barked as her ears twitched as she attempted to keep track of Balto's underground movements, "Use Will-o-Wisp inside the holes and see if you can force him out!"

Ember darted towards the nearest hole in the ground and began spitting out bluish white fire balls that floated into the tunnel system. Balto reappeared while she was doing that and slammed his Iron Tail into her sending the Fennekin into the hole that she'd just been sending Will-o-Wisps into before he dove after her. It was a tense few moments as they heard growling and sounds of fighting within the ground before Ember came barreling out looking a bit worse for wear. Balto followed her panting with a bleeding ear and a few cuts. Balto darted towards Ember and bite down with his jaws coated in Fire Fang. Ember struggled against him and attempted to use Ember only to find Balto unaffected. If anything, it made him stronger. Balto released Ember from his jaws as her struggles began to fade and lept backward eyeing her warily. Ember growled at him and took a step froward before collapsing causing the referee to call out, "Winner Valkyrie Potter of Pallet Town and Growlithe."

Balto darted over to her and she bent down to pet him, "Good job, Balto."

Vali stood up and moved to meet Yuki in the middle. They shook hands with Yuki saying, "That was a good battle despite us losing."

"It was," Vali agreed with a small smile, "I'm just glad we did so well despite not knowing what a Fennekin was,"

Yuki let out a laugh, "Well, I'm going to get Ember checked out at the pokemon center. Good luck with your next match."

"Thanks," Vali said as they let go and she returned Balto before heading to the healing area they had set up for the tournament.

Vali gave Balto's pokeball over to the Nurse Joy in charge, "It shouldn't take more than twenty minutes."

Nodding, Vali headed to sit down and watch the matches.

* * *

The matches of the first round passed pretty quickly as did the second. Vali ended up battling against a girl from her old class who sent out a rather small Rattata. Smaug was disappointed by his opponent and actually pouted at not having a good battle seeing as he managed to knock out the Rattata almost immediately. When the third round came, Vali found herself face to face with Ellen who sneered at her. Ellen had done surprisingly well with her Squirtle and Ekans though she'd almost lost during the last battle. Ellen sent out her Squirtle and Vali replied with Pikachu who peered at Squirtle who suddenly looked a bit fearful. Ellen frowned as she shrieked, "You can't use a Pikachu!"

"Since there isn't a rule about me using the same pokemon in all the rounds, I can," Vali looked at the referee.

The referee nodded to her, "The tournament has no rules against it."

"That isn't fair," Ellen pouted at the referee.

Vali barely managed to avoid face palming as she wondered just how some of her classmates could be so damn childish. Then again, she is mentally thirteen, so that probably makes a difference. Shaking her head as the referee called out, "Trainers ready?"

"No!" Ellen shouted as Vali nodded to the referee.

"If the trainer on the blue side will not battle then she forfeits to the trainer on the red," The referee called out making Ellen stiffen.

Eventually, the battle began and Vali started off, "Pikachu, end this quickly. Use Electro Ball."

Pikachu charged up and released his Electro Ball within a minute showing that their training was working out nicely. The ball of electricity slammed into Squirtle causing the turtle to shriek and disappear into his shell. Ellen growled and shouted, "Use Bubble!"

"Dodge it and use Electro Ball again," Vali called out in a bored tone.

If there was one person from Pallet town Vali didn't want to deal with, it was Ellen Ross. She was even more childish than Draco and the idiot had dressed like a dementor to scare her. Dealing with either of them was headache inducing if only from the sheer disbelief and annoyance she felt towards the two, Ellen Ross was almost worst than Draco especially since all she did was whine about how hard things were. It made her wonder how Ellen even managed to pass the trainer exam or how she'd survive until reaching Vermilion. Inwardly sighing, she focused on the battle which left Pikachu as bored as her. Eventually, Vali had Pikachu put Squirtle out of his misery with an Iron Tail to the back of the head which knocked the poor water type out. Ellen growled as she returned Squirtle, "Useless thing."

"Squirtle would be stronger if you actually trained him," Vali was so calling Professor Oak about the group of her former classmates, "Pikachu, do you want to see if she actually has anything interesting or no?" Pikachu shrugged and stayed on the field, "Okay then,"

Ellen sent out her next pokemon which was the same Ekans as before. Vali focused on it as it hissed and heard, " _Another battle? Stupid pain in the ass brat. I didn't agree to this."_

So even Ellen's pokemon didn't like her, how shocking. Vali shook her head lightly pushing her sarcastic thoughts to the back of her mind, "Pikachu, do your best to avoid any poison-type moves and just get this over with."

Pikachu nodded and quickly disappeared into the ground with Dig. Ellen screeched out, "What is it with you and Dig?"

"It's a viable and useful tactic," Vali ran a hand through her hair.

With Ekans being snake-like, it was able to sense the vibrations in the ground and managed to avoid being sent flying by Pikachu. Pikachu used Electro Ball to block the Poison Sting before using Thunder Shock on Ekans. Ekans hissed in displeasure rattling his tail before retaliating with Poison Sting. Pikachu used Iron Tail to block the attack. Thankfully, the steel-type move kept him from being poisoned. Pikachu sent another Electro Ball towards Ekans before using Quick Attack to start attempting to confuse the snake-like pokemon. Ellen screamed out attack only for Ekans to ignore her as it sent Poison Sting needles towards Pikachu whenever it could. Pikachu kept shocking the snake-like pokemon which eventually caused it to pass out with an annoyed hiss. Pikachu made his way back over to her as Ellen returned her pokemon and promptly took off. The crowd let out displeased murmurs at the unsportsmanlike conduct and she made her way towards the waiting room seeing as Pikachu hadn't sustained any damage during the bout. Zaria was there when she arrived, "That battle sucked."

"The only relatively nice battle was against Yuki Evans," Vali complained as she went to sit down.

"How the hell did any of them manage to get a trainer's license?" Zaria asked as she sat down next to Vali.

Vali shrugged lightly, "I have no clue, but I'm definitely going to be talking to Professor Oak. Did you hear her talk about that Squirtle?"

Zaria made a tching sound, "She definitely doesn't deserve to be a pokemon trainer if she treats them like that."

* * *

Eventually the third round ended and the fourth began. The competition got stiffer as the more talented trainers in the groups sent the less talented ones packing. Vali's opponent for the fourth round was a rather skilled girl with a Fearow and a Poliwhirl. Vali won by the skin of her teeth and Celina's stubbornness to not lose against a Fearow. The fifth round was easier as Vali ended up paired with a girl that used a Weepinbell and Gloom.

* * *

The sixth round saw Vali facing a ten year old by the name of Amelia Walker from Pacifidlog Town in Hoenn. Amelia had golden blonde hair and kind bright blue eyes that reminded Vali of the Cerulean Bay. She had earned quite a bit of attention in the previous rounds due to her use of an Eevee and a shiny Corsola. Amelia offered Vali a kind smile, "Call me Amy, I heard through the grape-vine you're trying to become a fire-type master. I'm trying to become a water-type master."

"Call me Vali," Vali replied with a light grin, "It seems like this battle will be fun,"

Amy nodded with a laugh, "Yeah."

They called out their first pokemon which ended up being Balto for her and Eevee for Amy. Vali called out, "Hide and Seek!"

Balto immediately disappeared into the ground and Amy said, "You sure do love that move."

"It's useful," Vali shrugged lightly.

Eevee's ear twitched as a concentrated look appeared on it's face. Eevee jumped up just before Balto launched himself from the ground and Amy called out, "Eevee, Swift!"

"Balto, Ember to block it as best you can then Iron Tail," Vali called out in return.

Glowing stars met coal-like projectiles causing a mini-explosion sending both pokemon flying back. Balto took off towards Eevee as soon as he landed and attempted to hit it with an Iron Tail only for Eevee to dodge using Quick Attack. Balto disappeared into the ground with Dig earning a low growl of annoyance from Eevee. Amy frowned, "Eevee, listen for Growlithe and use Swift when he reappears followed by Captivate."

"Balto," Vali murmured, "Confuse Eevee as best you can,"

The ground underneath Eevee vibrated causing it to jump up and charge up Swift before pausing when Balto didn't appear underneath her. Eevee landed and the ground vibrated again causing Eevee to jump up. Yet again, Balto didn't appear from the ground. From the hole behind where Eevee was standing, Balto's head appeared and he released an Ember attack before disappearing back into the ground. Eevee let out a yip of pain as it was hit by the flaming projectiles before swinging around with a growl only to pause in confusion at not seeing Balto. Balto continued this action for a bit all the while creating more holes in the ground. Eventually, the ground became unstable beneath Eevee and it fell inside as dust was thrown up. The sounds of an intense fight sounded from the cloud and when it dissipated both pokemon were barely standing. Balto and Eevee both stepped forward before fainting earning surprised cheers from the crowd. Vali returned Balto as the Referee called out, "Trainers release your next pokemon."

"Good job, Balto. Thank you for your help," Balto's pokeball warmed in her grip and Vali took out Celina's pokeball, "Come out and battle with my, my friend!" Celina appeared as Amy released a shiny Corsola earning surprised gasps, "Well, you don't see that every day,"

Considering how rare Corsola were and add in the rarity of the shiny gene, Amy had one rare pokemon. Amy smiled as she called out, "Corsola, let's start off with Ancient Power."

"Celina into the air," Vali tried to think of a possible move-set that this Corsola might have which was a bit difficult considering how rare they were, "Use Swift and Gust as much as possible,"

Celina trilled before shooting into the sky. Corsola began flinging rocks up at Celina who used Swift to break them up and Gust to send them back down earning a squeak from the Corsola. Corsola was surprisingly nimble and managed to dodge the Gust powered rocks heading towards it. Celina used Swift once the rocks were gone as well as Gust to add a bit more power to the glowing stars. The stars slammed into Corsola earning a squeal of pain as it was sent flying, but it managed to use Bubble Beam to stop the assault by making Celina dodge. Amy called out, "Corsola, use Recover."

Mentally cursing, Vali called out, "Celina use Swift! Don't let that Corsola use Recover!"

One of the things she was going to look at were healing moves her pokemon could use, it would be useful in situations like this. Corsola glowed a bit as Recover began healing it before the healing energy was cut off by Swift slamming into it. Celina dove in as Corsola tried to steady itself from the Swift that had hit it and her pokemon slammed into the water and rock-type with Steel Wing powered by Aerial Ace. Amy grimaced as Corsola was sent flying, "Corsola, Bubble Beam."

Corsola shot the beam of bubble towards Celina who dodged the attack before hitting her opponent with another Steel Wing and Aerial Ace combo that sent Corsola slamming into the ground. Celina used Gust to clear away the dirt cloud that had gotten kicked up to reveal Corsola still standing. The determined shiny pokemon used Ancient Power again prompting Celina to use her Swift/Gust combination again. Corsola used the time she had been given to use Recover for as long as she could. Celina trilled as she kept on the assault from before. Corsola managed to score a lucky hit with Bubble Beam only to be knocked out by Celina's Quick Attack.

Celina landed before Vali looking a bit exhausted, but proud of herself. Gently scratching her breast feathers, Vali murmured, "Good job, Celina. You definitely deserve the pampering I'm going to give you."

Celina puffed up a bit and Vali smiled as she returned her before moving to shake hands with Amy. The other trainer let out a soft laugh, "That was a fun battle even if we lost."

"Definitely," Vali agreed with a smile as they shook hands, "Where on earth did you get that shiny Corsola?"

Amy smirked, "If we end up meeting during the League Conference, I might tell you."

Shrugging with a small laugh, "Guess that seems fair."

* * *

By the seventh round, only four girls were left. Vali ended up facing against a psychic type trainer that had a Drowzee and a Exeggcute. Drowzee beat Pikachu, but ended up knocked out by Smaug who quickly decimated the Exeggcute. Vali took her pokemon to the healing area where she watched Zaria get beaten by a rather hyperactive blonde with a Voltorb and a spider-like pokemon called Joltik. Zaria shook hands with the kid before heading towards the healing area where she said, "Be careful of her, that Joltik..."

"Don't worry, I'm not planning on losing," Vali managed to figure out that Joltik was an electric and bug-type which was an odd combination.

Zaria nodded and headed off to go get her pokemon healed.

* * *

The hyperactive blonde was called Electra Donalds and was from Unova. She grinned at Vali as she called out an Magnemite, "This is going to be so much fun!"

"Yeah," Vali sent out Smaug, "Smaug, like with the Elder,"

Smaug immediately released thick clouds of smoke earning a pout from Electra, "That isn't very nice."

"I'd rather avoid straining my pokemon too much especially since I really want to win," Vali replied as Smaug darted into the clouds with a slight grin.

"Magnemite, use Supersonic when you can," Electra called out earning a slight growl from Vali.

"Not very nice of you either," Vali said earning a slight grin in reply.

Smaug kept up the smoke clouds as the battle continued with occasional sounds of pain and the shrieks that made up Supersonic. Vali grimaced as she listened to the battle before smiling as Smaug let the clouds of smoke dissipate to reveal Magnemite unconscious on the ground. Electra sighed as she returned Magnemite, "That wasn't very fun, but I guess not all battles can be. Come on out, Lucy!"

Electra's pokemon turned out to be a Mareep that blinked sleepily as it appeared. Smaug blinked at the sheep before shrugging as he released more clouds of smoke. Vali called out, "Smaug try to avoid touching it for the same reason as not touching Pikachu during a practice battle."

"Use Thunder Wave, Lucy," Electra called out with a slight grin, "Try to hit it with Cotton Spore as well!"

Small yellow streaks appeared among the smoke clouds as Lucy the Mareep baa'd and Smaug let out a snarl. A huge gout of fire occurred and was followed by a cry of pain from Lucy the Mareep. Vali pulled out her pokedex and checked Smaug's entry to see that yes, Smaug knew Flamethrower now. She was going to have him teach Balto that move as soon as possible though she did wonder if he'd been practicing his fire attacks in secret since only those with a strong inner flame could use that move. The cloud of smoke dissipated to reveal an unconscious and burned Lucy the Mareep. upon seeing Smaug flinch as sparks of electricity ran over his scales, she returned him before moving to shake hands with Electra, "Thanks for the good battle."

"Same. I hope we can battle again sometime," Electra grinned at her before they moved towards the healing area.

* * *

Vali looked at the opponent she'd be facing and grimaced a little. Sharrah Yuniki was a fifteen year old from Unova with blonde hair and green eyes. She had swept the competition from her division with a Braixen and a Zweilous. Based on what she had seen of the older girl's battles, she would be hard pressed to win. Did that deter her from trying, no, but it worried her a little. The Braixen wasn't too bad, but the Zweilous was a monster that would take a lot of cunning to defeat which meant she would need to utilize her Slytherin side to the max. For this battle, Vali was having Pikachu and Balto be her pokemon. From what the announcer had said over the TV, Zweilous was a dark and dragon-type. Normally, she wouldn't be too worried as dark-types weren't that rare even in Kanto thanks to their closeness to Johto and pokemon deciding to migrate between regions. A dual dark and dragon-type on the other hand was not something she expected to deal with especially since Unova like every region tended to avoid talking about their native dragon-types. Whether it was to have an element of surprise during wars or something along those lines, she didn't know, but it was very annoying.

Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves as she stepped into her trainer box, Vali looked at her opponent, "Hello."

"Hello," Sharrah greeted her with a small smile, "You did pretty good,"

"So did you," Vali palmed Balto's pokeball.

"Trainers are you ready?" The referee called out earning nods, "Trainers release your pokemon!"

"Come out and battle with me, my friend!" Vali called out as she released Balto while Sharrah released her Braixen, "Balto, hide and seek! We can't take any chances,"

Balto disappeared into the ground immediately. Sharrah hummed softly, "Braixen, Lucky Chant and Light Screen."

Mentally grimacing as Braixen began humming with her head tilted towards the sky and moving her paws around as Light Screen formed, Vali called out, "Hit as hard as you can!"

Balto shot out of the ground behind Braixen and slammed an Iron Tail into the Light Screen which rippled as it passed through. Braixen barely stumbled only to cry out as Balto latched onto her with Fire Fang. Balto hung onto Braixen's arm for as long as possible before detaching as the fox-like pokemon swung him upwards. Balto sent Ember at her before disappearing back into the hole he'd come out of. Sharrah looked interested, "Quite the quick pokemon you have there, he didn't need many instructions either," Vali nodded lightly, "Braixen, Echoed Voice into the hole."

Braixen made it's way towards the hole Balto had dug and let out a humming tone into hole that echoed through the air. Balto popped up moments later with a whine and shook his head. Braixen sent an Ember attack towards Balto. Balto didn't even try to dodge it and the flames of the attack seemed to be absorbed into his fur. Balto retaliated with his own Ember attack that Braixen dodged for the most part before he used Dig again. Braixen went to use Echoed Voice again only to get an Ember to the face followed by a brutal Iron Tail. Braixen stumbled back a bit allowing Balto to continue his onslaught. Braixen sent Balto flying with a Fire Punch. The attack didn't do anything other than power Balto up though which would be very useful later on. Balto disappeared into the ground again as Vali called out, "Keep it up, Balto."

If they could keep Braixen off balance, they had a good chance to win this battle. Sharrah began to frown as her pokemon looked more than a little annoyed and beat up, "So your puppy has Flash Fire for an ability, that makes things interesting. Braixen, Toxic into the holes."

Inwardly cursing a bit at the poison type move, Vali called out, "Hit that fox before it can do that, Balto!'

Balto shot out of the hole just as Braixen began releasing a ball of toxins and slammed his tail into Braixen. Braixen cried out as it's Light Screen finally shattered while Vali grimaced slightly. Even if Toxic hadn't gotten into his mouth, it was on Balto's fur and would probably seep in soon. He was definitely going to need a rather long bath after she got him healed up. Balto turned and spat Ember at his coat covering himself in the flame-like coals. She realized he was attempting to burn away the poison before it had a chance to seep into his fur. Smiling a bit at his intelligence, "Balto, keep it up."

The battle continued in a similar fashion before Balto managed to get in a lucky hit with his Iron Tail which knocked out Braixen. Balto shuddered as a purple aura covered his body and she grimaced realizing that Braixen had managed to poison him. They were a on a time limit now, but they could do this. Balto gave her a determined look as Sharrah released her Zweilous who roared as it appeared, "I hope you realize that this battle is far from over."

"Ditto," Vali replied with a slight smile, "Balto, Hide and Seek with a bit extra please,"

Balto glanced at her and she gestured to the sun that was going to set pretty soon. Balto barked and disappeared into one of his previously dug holes. A minor golden glow appeared within the tunnel earning a confused look from Sharrah. Hopefully, Morning Sun bought them a bit more time. Sharrah called out, "Zweilous, Dragon Breath into the tunnels as strong as you can."

The two headed dragon stumbled over to the holes Balto had dug near where it was standing before sticking it's head inside and releasing a burst of what looked like greenish blue flames into the tunnels. Balto was quickly to dart out as the flames race out of the tunnels, but he didn't let that stop him even if the attack had managed to scorch him a bit. He darted towards the heads still releasing the flames into the tunnels and slammed an Iron Tail into them. Zweilous reared with a roared and attempted to bite Balto. Balto used Iron Tail to leap off the dragon-type before sending Ember towards it. Balto dug a whole new tunnel and Vali murmured, "Dig underneath it and collapse the tunnel, we need to trap it."

While it might be hard to hear her over the crowd, Vali didn't doubt that Balto had heard her. Zweilous shifted as it's two heads twisted around only to slam into each other pissing the pokemon off. Zweilous' two heads began snapping at one another earning a low sigh from it's trainer who began shouting at it to stop, "Stop fighting you-"

Zweilous let out a shriek of surprise as the ground underneath it caved in. Balto reappeared only to stiffen as a purple aura covered his body. He stumbled slightly panting softly and Vali took out his pokeball, "That's enough, Balto. You've done your part, but I'll call you out again if it's needed," Balto nodded and she returned him before releasing Pikachu, "Pikachu, we're facing a dual dragon and dark-type," Pikachu's eyes widened, "Balto already won the first part, but he ended up poisoned. While he hasn't fainted, I would prefer not stressing him out any further at the moment," Pikachu nodded and looked at the dragon that was attempting to get out of the hole it had found itself in, "Let's win this," Pikachu's cheeks sparked as he glared at the dragon, "Electric Terrain then Electro Ball and Thunder Shock. Avoid getting in close if you can, but if you have to, use Iron Tail or Thunder Punch."

Pikachu began releasing large amounts of electricity into the ground which caused it to take on a yellowing gold aura. Sharrah stared at Pikachu in shock, "A Pikachu with Electric Terrain?"

"Yeah, I got pretty lucky," Vali grinned slightly as Pikachu began using Electro Ball of Zweilous, "I wouldn't change my pokemon for anything in the world. They have their quirks, but that just makes me love them,"

Pikachu shot her a slight smile before refocusing on the match. For a pokemon that hadn't really wanted her as a trainer, he'd changed a lot since they first met. She would need to ask him if he wanted to evolve after this match was over. Refocusing on the match, Vali watched as Pikachu pretty much took control of the match and reigned electrical hell down on the dragon and dark-type. With Zweilous pretty much trapped, it didn't have many opportunities to fight back especially since Pikachu was ensuring it couldn't get out of the hole Balto had trapped it in. It spammed Dragon Breath which Pikachu was able to dodge either by jumping over the flames or disappearing into the ground with Dig. Soon enough, Zweilous couldn't take anymore and passed out as Pikachu panted heavily showing just how exhausted he was. Sharrah returned Zweilous as Pikachu raced over to her and the Referee called out, "Winner Valkyrie Potter of Pallet Town and Pikachu."

Pikachu practically collapsed in her arms and she gently picked him up, "You did a very good job, Pikachu," Pikachu tiredly nuzzled her, "I have a question for you. Do you want to evolve into a Raichu?" Pikachu jolted and looked at her with wide eyes, "Not right now, but when you've reached your limit as a Pikachu." Pikachu nodded and she smiled, "Then I'll make sure I get a Thunder stone."

Vali returned Pikachu before shaking hands with Sharrah, "That was a nice battle kid. I didn't expect to lose. That trick with collapsing the tunnels your pokemon made, when did you think of it?"

"I just made it up. I knew that since Zweilous was a dragon-type even if it was only half of it's typing, we wouldn't be able to beat it straight up," Vali explained as she shook Sharrah's hand, "I knew that it was a bit too strong for us at our current skill level, so I just focused on figuring out what I could do that wouldn't put my pokemon in unneeded danger,"

"It was a pretty good plan despite being made on the fly," Sharrah said as they let go, "Thanks for the battle, Kid. I needed my ass to get kicked with how cocky I've been lately,"

* * *

After her pokemon were healed up for the most part, Vali, Sharrah, and Electra made their way towards the prize podium. They were joined by the guys that had won the tournament. Steven was in the group prompting her to ask, "How'd you do?"

"I lost the last battle," Steven answered with a slight sigh, "You?"

"I won," Vali answered feeling joyful at winning and sad that Steven had lost.

"It was a close battle," A red haired guy around Steven's age with dark almost black gold eyes clapped Steven on the shoulder, "Your Metagross almost managed to beat my Dragonite. If they had stayed conscious just a few more minutes, you probably would've won,"

The guy's hair was a bright crimson red and almost to his shoulders. He wore what looked like a dark red body suit with a dark blue cape hanging from his shoulders. He grinned brightly while Steven shifted away from the other male a bit. Vali looked at Steven, "Looks like you have to try a bit harder next time you run into one another."

"I suppose so," Steven smiled lightly, "Congratulations on the win, Vali,"

They were herded onto the prize podium with Vali and the red haired guy sharing the first place podium. Each of them were given their pokeball prizes, money, and a medal that she would be sending home as soon as she could. They were then led into one of the side areas in the arena as the crowd and other tournament participants left. Lt. Surge looked them over before focusing on Vali and Electra, "You two at the very least don't have a bad choice in pokemon."

"Surge," A middle age man that Vali recognized to be Mr. Lucas Sonezaki, the CEO of Silph co., "Not now,"

Lt. Surge rolled his eyes, "Fine. Cherry head and Green Eyes, you get first pick for the evolutionary items."

Mr. Sonezaki sighed deeply, "Mr. Blackthorn, Ms. Potter, congratulations in coming in first. Please pick out your evolutionary items."

They walked over to them table covered in evolutionary items that Vali would probably never see so many of again. Vali immediately picked up a Fire Stone and a Thunder Stone before pausing for a second. She could pick another Fire Stone especially since she wanted a Vulpix, but then again, she could pick the Magmarizer for when she got a member of the Magby-line. She thought about it carefully before grabbing the lone Magmarizer which would be sent home at the soonest. Fire Stones were easier to find and buy while Magmarizers were expensive as hell if you ever actually found one. She glanced at Lance and saw him pick up three evolutionary items of his own. He picked up the lone Dragon Scale on the table, a Fire Stone, and a Water Stone. After that, Steven and Sharrah were given their own choices. Steven picked up the lone Metal Coat and a Fire Stone which had him glancing at her with a smile. Sharrah grabbed a water stone and the Kings rock. Electra and the other guy, a brown haired boy by the name of Zack. Electra snapped up a Thunder Stone while Zack picked a Leaf Stone.

Mr. Sonezaki spoke once everyone had made their choices, "Mister Blackthorn, Miss Potter, all the tournaments have been supplied with pokemon that various breeders. Please come to this consul and insert your pokedexs into the slot, the pokemon will be transferred to your account. If you have six pokemon, it will be placed in an inactive slot for a period of two weeks to allow you time to bond and decide which pokemon you'll be sending to your respective regional Professors."

Vali and Lance did as they were asked. The consul beeped and whirred loudly for a few minutes before a ding sounded. The two round slots on top of the consul opened to reveal a pair of friend balls. Vali and Lance took the pokeballs before grabbing their pokedexs. Vali stared at the pokeball in her hand feeling it warm against her fingers as Lance released the pokemon he'd won in the tournament. A low cooing sound echoed through the air as a Dratini materialized and Lance beamed at it, "Hello, my new friend."

Lance began bonding with the Dratini and Vali looked at the pokeball in her hand before releasing her own new pokemon.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997: This chapter fought me quite a bit, but I managed it. Mostly, it was deciding what exactly to give Vali as I was stuck between two pokemon choices. She'll get both eventually, but still, do you realize how hard it was to choose? *Runs hand through her hair* Okay, well, I hope you guys enjoy this. I'll try to update again soon, but it may end up waiting as I am starting a new job. Not exactly the funnest experience in the world, but I need money!**

 **Reviews:**

 **Twister60 : Thank you very much. I did a lot of debating in that chapter, but it was definitely worth it.**

 **Pikachu79 : An Authors rite of passage happens to be a cliffhanger and I had to end it there since I didn't exactly finish deciding what pokemon Vali got at that point. The pain I went through deciding it**

 **LazyKid24 : Thank you. Sorry, but I had trouble deciding which pokemon to give her.**

 **RHatch89 : Thank you.**

 **flippy3131 : Author rite of passage. It's in the rule 23 in the rule book. Thank you.**

 **comodo50 : It's okay. Me too since I got the idea from watching some old Bugs Bunny cartoons. Well, ya see...Creative rights? You'll see. Not a shiny and not a Magmar though *Cuts myself off when Smaug bites me* Okay, no spoilers. Stupid lizard.**

 **yukicrewger2 : Pretty much.**

 **Knight of elves : I had to! That's what I'm trying to do since the world ending adventures are Ash's stick.**

 **Tejerina : Author rite of passage.**

 **ThunderClaw03 : Thank you. **

**frankieu : Glad you liked it. An interesting prospect.**

 **kfawcett1998 : *Bows with a tophat in hand* It's my pleasure dearest patron.**

 **Gracie15Trowa : You'll see.**

 **greenespeon1995 : Authors rite, my friend.**

 **xirons : Thanks. No problem. They are for now. You'll just have to see. You'll see. I had to make sure Vali wasn't getting a big head. Oh yes, I must put it in somewhere in the future. I'm glad.**

 **vxgt : Author rite of passage. You'll just have to wait and see. You'll have to wait and see. Oh god, that would be a legend kille-*Pauses before grinning* An interesting thought that I'll come back to eventually. You'll just have to wait and see. You'll see. Not really, I'm thinking Ash's Pikachu is blessed by Arceus otherwise he wouldn't be able to go toe to toe with legendaries. Ramble away as it's nice to see people's thoughts.**

 **Goldenfightergirl : Had to.**

 **Dark Wolf of Teros : Had to and I'm glad to hear it.**

 **Jostanos : Might end up taking you up on that offer eventually though don't know when. You'll see though I will say this that it isn't a shiny. **

**darkworkangel : thank you.**

 **ASleepySloth : Had to. You'll just have to see. I know and it frustrates the hell out of me especially since there aren't any fire/electric types which is crazy since that would be an awesome combination. **

**Kurayamj KR : Two review:**

 **1:Okay good to know. It'll be awhile before she actually really controls it though. You'll have to wait and see. Thanks. You'll have to wait and see. You'll have to wait and see what she gets. Thanks and hope you review again.**

 **2: Not at the moment for reasons that will become clear much later on.**

 **Lady Kaiki: Thanks.**

 **Sakiq-Sakik: I wanted to be diffrent if only because it would make people more interested in my story. Thanks and here's the next chapter.**

 **PikaMew1288 : A few reviews so:**

 **Chapter 1: Not really as I've never seen the anime. You'll just have to wait and see for that particular answer. Pretty much.**

 **Chapter 3: I explained it in this chapter.**

 **Chapter 5: Not at the moment for reasons that will become clear later on.**

 **Chapter 6: In my mind that wasn't actual magic or it was a magic of a diffrent kind from Vali/Sirius meaning they're diffrent. Absolutely not for reasons that will be revealed later though part of it is a personal preference.**

 **Chapter 7:Yeah no, that isn't going to happen since I don't really like the Alolan Raichu. She will have a psychic-type, but that's for later.**

 **cherry. dulce11** **: Thank you.**

 **Crystalline -Bismuth: I'm glad you like it and hope to hear from you again.**

 **MaskedRiderEnzo : Thanks. I don't really have an opinion since I can't get either game due to not having a Switch. **

**fallondyson : Here is the next update.**

 **Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to pass out.**

* * *

 **Words: 18,447**

* * *

Chapter 7

* * *

The pokemon that appeared from within the pokeball was a Larvitar. It blinked slowly when it fully materialized before focusing on her. It's eyes widened and she bent down slowly making sure to keep her movements fairly slow. Larvitar were known for their shyness when it came to new people. She spoke softly trying to decrease any signs of being a threat, "Hello, Little one. My name is Valkyrie Potter though I prefer being called Vali. I'm you're new trainer. I hope we can be friends."

Slowly holding out her hand palm up, Vali watched as Larvitar seemed to weigh her words before it moved closer to her and placed it's stubby paw into her hand. She smiled warmly as she gently rubbed it's head as she heard someone mutter, "Two rare pseudo-legendaries? What the actual fuck?"

"Welcome to the family, Little One," Vali said as she settled more comfortably on the ground and the Larvitar moved closer to her.

Mr. Sonezaki and Surge allowed the two tournament winners a bit of time to bond with their new pokemon before going on to the next part. Each of them were given a voucher for a week of free meals at any restaurant. The list of participating restaurants would be available at the pokemon center. They were all congratulated again before being ushered out of the arena. Vali looked at the newest pokeball to add to her belt and muttered, "It's going to be difficult figuring out who to send home for a little while."

"The best thing you can do is talk to them," Steven advised as they made their way towards the pokemon center.

"Hey!" Steven and Vali paused before turning to see Lance running after them.

A Charizard followed after him and looked very unimpressed as it did so. Lance slid to a stop next to them as Vali said, "Lance, is there something you need?"

"Just wanted to see if you two wanted to eat dinner together," Lance said as he held up the dinner voucher, "After getting your pokemon checked out, of course,"

Vali looked at Steven in askance and he shrugged prompting her to say, "I guess that would be fine. Have you already been back to the pokemon center?"

"Nah, I'm not staying at the pokemon center," Lance said as he joined them on their walk towards the pokemon center, "I'm roughing it with my pokemon since most of them dislike the amount of noise within the city. It'll be a relief when there aren't so many people around,"

Vali smiled as she nodded, "Yeah."

Lance offered her a roguish grin, "Ah, a pretty lady after my own heart then?"

Vali flushed a bit at the compliment before shrugging. Steven cleared his throat as they moved through the twisting crowds, "Lance, how many dragon-types do you have?"

"Six well seven with my newest Dratini," Lance answered as he looked at Steven, "I'm trying to become a dragon-type master as well as the champion of both Kanto and Johto,"

"That's a pretty big ambition," Steven commented earning a shrug from Lance, "Though given I'm trying to do the same, but with my home region and steel-types, I suppose it isn't too big,"

Lance nodded before looking at Vali, "What about you?"

"I want to become a fire-type master and maybe try to become a member of the elite four at some point," Vali still wasn't sure what exactly she wanted to do.

Lance's grin widened and Vali squeaked a bit when he threw an arm around her shoulders, "Guess I've met one of my future elite four members."

Vali didn't exactly know how to react and was very glad when Steven tugged her away from Lance. He moved to walk between the two as Lance stared at him with a raised eyebrow, "Vali doesn't like being touched by strangers."

"Ah, sorry," Lance offered her a sheepish grin, "I'm sometimes a bit too physical when it comes to those around me,"

"It's fine," Vali was glad to see the pokemon center.

* * *

Vali and Steven dropped off their pokemon before heading up to their room. She put her prizes in the storage device while saying, "I'm going to send them home. I don't want to accidentally use them or something not to mention I don't have any use for my Magmarizer."

"Here," Steven held the Fire Stone out to her.

"You sure?" Vali asked him slowly reaching out to take the stone.

"It's why I chose it rather than one of the others since I know you'll end up using it eventually," Steven said as Vali's hand closed over the warm stone.

Heat flowed through her skin from where the stone was touching her and Vali found her eyes drawn to the flame twisting in the center of it. Visions of fire and the flame covered being flashed through her as she stared into the flame before it all suddenly cut out as the stone fell to the floor. Feeling her lungs burn as she exhaled, she knew that she hadn't breathed when touching the stone. She looked at Steven and saw his wide eyes as he focused on the stone. A jolt went through her as she wondered if he'd seen it too. Opening her mouth, she spoke in a slightly weak voice, "Steven? Did you see... _that_?"

Steven nodded slowly, "T-that vision...Those dreams..."

Steven trailed off and looked at her in askance. Had he just seen what she had? Vali nodded as she grabbed her scarf and bent down to pick up the stone which felt burning hot even through the fabric of the scarf. She put the stone into her storage device as she murmured, "A small piece of it, yeah."

"No wonder you had trouble sleeping," Steven murmured weakly.

It shouldn't have been funny in any context, but Vali found herself laughing. The laughter was bitter and wild as it left her throat. It was better than the screams that tried to leave her after some of the more violent dreams that had lurked inside her mind. Fire was destructive and consuming for all the good it brought. She forced herself to calm down and grabbed Fawkes' feather which always managed to calm her down. She spoke as she finished laughing, "You don't know the half of it, Steven."

* * *

After both of them had calmed down, they went down to find Lance waiting for them alongside Zaria. After giving introductions and getting the list of restaurants, they headed off to go eat. They ended up picking a quaint family run restaurant rather than one of the high class ones. They got a bit of everything and ended up sharing most of their food together as well as stories of their journeys so far. Dinner was nice with all four of them hitting off fairly well with Zaria getting a bit jealous of Vali now having a Larvitar. After dinner, they headed to the pokemon center where they ended up in one of the training grounds sitting together. Vali found herself leaning back against of the logs normally used for target practice with Steven sitting on a rock next to her. Zaria shook her head as Vali finished explaining about the male Nidoran incident, "That sucks, but I guess its a good thing that something like that happened."

"What do you mean?" Vali asked her with a frown.

"For all those resistance shots they give us, it doesn't do more than keep the poison we get hit with from killing us until after our bodies experience a live form of the poison," Zaria explained from her place sitting on the log next to Vali, "I mean you know those stories about people who are immune to Arbok venom can still be affected by Seviper venom,"

Lance spoke up, "Yeah, it's because of they're not the same species and their poisons differ despite causing the same effects."

"It also has to do with the individual pokemon," Steven added earning a few nods.

Now that she thought about it, she shouldn't have been affected by the Nidoran's poison due to the basilisk venom still in her veins, yet she had been. With their explanation, it actually made a lot of sense especially since pokemon venom was diffrent from snake venom even if it came from a magical one. Making a mental note to talk to Professor Oak about it later, Vali said, "Guess that makes a lot of sense. I wish they'd mentioned that in school."

Mutters of agreement were given. For all that school did to prepare them, it left out quite a bit.

* * *

Since all her pokemon save for Sandshrew, Arwen, Eevee, and Larvitar were currently being detained by the Vermilion city Nurse Joys until tomorrow, Vali decided to get some real bonding done with them. Of course, she kept in mind that Eevee still didn't like anyone, so didn't really do anything with him other than make sure he knew that he was welcome to join in. Sandshrew was scared of Larvitar and Larvitar was scared of the new pokemon. She learned that having a pokemon with skin as hard as a rock digging it's pointed head into her side hurt even it didn't mean to. Once everyone had calmed down and Larvitar seemed a bit more used to them, she took out her pokedex and scanned her newest pokemon:

 _Larvitar, the Rock Skin Pokemon._ _Larvitar is born deep under the ground. To come up to the surface, this Pokémon must eat its way through the soil above. Until it does so, Larvitar cannot see its parents. Raised on nutrients it finds in the dirt, it eats roughly a mountain's worth of dirt before it becomes a pupa._

 _This Larvitar is Female and has the ability Guts*. This Larvitar knows Bite, Leer, Sandstorm, Outrage, and Ancient Power._

 _*Ability will change upon Evolution._

Larvitar was pretty powerful despite being a young pokemon, but Vali supposed that was how pseudo-legendary pokemon were. She would have a lot of work on her hands to train her newest little one, but that was fine with her. She decided to put off naming giving Larvitar a name just yet since it was about time she asked Sandshrew if the little one wanted a name. Sandshrew looked at her with wide eyes as she asked, "Do you want a name?" Sandshrew was silent for a little while before nodding her head, "How about Idril?"

Sandshrew nodded eagerly making Vali smile warmly. All she knew about Idril was that she had something to do with a green stone. Given that shiny Sandshrew were green, it felt right. Idril pointed at Larvitar who looked a bit baffled by the proceedings before looking up at her with a wide eyed look. Steven spoke with an amused look, "I think Sandshrew wants you to give Larvitar a name."

"Is Steven right?" Vali asked Idril who nodded and she turned to Larvitar, "Would you like a name as well, Larvitar?" Larvitar looked a bit confused so Vali explained what she meant and the small pokemon nodded, "Alright let's see if we can't find you one,"

Eventually, they settled on Terra which was easy for Larvitar to remember and was the only one she seemed to actually like.

* * *

Terra the Larvitar was odd, but Balto supposed that was just how their pack was going to be. She was shy which wasn't an unfamiliar thing if only because of the newly named Idril. Balto decided to do his best to get her comfortable just as he did with each new member of the pack. She took it better than Eevee, but he supposed that was because she hadn't been hurt as Eevee had been. She seemed a bit lost which was understandable seeing as she wasn't much older than Idril only unlike the Sandshrew, she hadn't lost her kin. He found that he didn't like Breeders very much if only because they took young pokemon from their parents without asking if they wanted to go. Of course, he was glad that she'd joined their pack, but that was where his good feelings stopped.

When Balto took her scent, he began thinking about how it differed from each member of his pack. Terra smelt of deep earth, soil, darkness, and caves with a hit of mountain air. Arwen smelt of warm summer wind, grasslands that went on for miles, and fresh grass. Sandshrew smelt of dirt burrows, dark mountains where they'd found her, and Vali. Pikachu smelt of the forest in the middle of spring, lightning storms that brought much needed rain, and Vali. Celina smelt of the crisp morning air, wind flowing through the tree tops, and Vali. Smaug smelt of crackling camp fires, a wild fire devouring a dried out forest, and Vali. Underneath the hurt and pain, Eevee smelt of warm nights curled up with his pack near the fire, running through a thick forest, and just barely carrying a hint of Vali. Out of all of them, Balto admitted to loving Vali's scent the most.

Vali's scent was filled with so many layers that it always left his nose tingling whenever he took in her scent. At the edges, she smelt of each member of their pack, Steven, and Steven's pokemon. Beneath those scents, she smelt of the sky filled with lightning not yet ready to strike at the earth and painful hurts that were slowly beginning to heal. Vali's natural scent was of warm nights spent by the fire, days spent walking through the wilds, and home with his kin. Within her natural scent, he smelt the fire that burned within her very core. The burning fire that lived within every fire-type from the smallest Growlithe pup to the largest Charizard. How she came about her piece of the fire that burned within them all, he did not know nor did he know why it smelt a bit diffrent from the ones he's scented before.

* * *

"Sneasel, use Scratch!" Zaria called out.

Zaria's Sneasel was as old as Idril and fairly new to battling which made him the perfect pokemon for Idril's first battle. Vali called out, "Dig, Idril."

Idril dug into the ground just managing to miss the Scratch that Sneasel aimed for her. Idril reappeared from her hole as Sneasel paused looking around in shock which turned into pain as Idril used her own Scratch attack on him. Zaria groaned softly, "Sneasel, remember you always need to be aware of your surroundings during a battle. Keep moving even if your attack doesn't hit," Sneasel grimaced as he picked himself up, "I think that's enough for now."

"Yeah," Vali agreed as the two walked over to their pokemon.

"How's Terra settling in?" Zaria asked as they moved off of the battlefield they'd been using.

"Not too bad, I'm making sure to include her when I can just like Eevee," Vali sat down on the bench as Zaria did the same and began looking over Sandshrew scratches from the minor bout, "Feeding her won't be too hard though I'm not looking forward to when she fully evolves. Tyranitar are harsh on the budget even if you're buying those pellets that keep them full without feeding them a mountain,"

"I'd love to know which breeder they got her from," Zaria sighed softly, "I know it would be hellishly expensive, but I want one so bad and they're rare to find in the wild even in Johto,"

"I know the feeling all too well," Vali thought about all the fire-types, "The amount of money I'd have to pay to get a fire-type from a breeder even if it's a Magby or Litleo is high especially when you add in the taxes from importing either of them. I'm just glad Siri's giving me a Houndour egg once the breeding season is over,"

"Lucky," Zaria sighed softly before shaking her head, "Have you figured out who you'll send back?"

"Nope. I'm letting them decide," Vali groaned softly, "I wish they all could just stay with me, but that's impossible right now,"

Zaria patted her on the shoulder with a sympathetic smile. You could tell a lot by a pokemon trainer simply by how hard it was to decide which of their pokemon to send back to the regional Professor and why.

* * *

Professor Oak sighed deeply, "Thank you for telling me even though it was a bit later than I'd like."

Vali offered the Professor a sheepish smile. She had totally forgotten about telling him what happened during the tournament in the wake of getting Terra and making sure the Larvitar settled into being her pokemon. There was also the fact that Lance and Zaria had been constants in the days since the tournament, the latter more so when it came to Vali. She let the smile drop as she asked, "What's going to happen, Professor?"

Professor Oak ran a hand over his face, "To be honest, I don't know what I can do. I'll file a report to the League and the girls will be placed under a watch, but that's all I can do without actual proof that any of them are abusing their pokemon."

"Understood, Professor," Vali had mixed feelings about whether she wanted Ellen to be caught abusing her pokemon or not.

Professor Oak's eyes shown with understanding as he nodded. He smiled slightly, "So have you made a decision on who to send here?"

Vali shook her head, "I'm leaving the decision up to my pokemon other than Eevee. It's too hard for me to decide though I will admit that some of them could really use a break."

Between the battle with the Elder Rapidash and the tournament, all of her older pokemon deserved a break. Hell, Vali deserved a break especially since her dreams had returned to those vision after touching the fire stone. She was so sending the evolutionary stones home as soon as possible. Professor Oak took her from those thoughts as he said, "Well, I'll be waiting for your decision."

Vali nodded lightly as she remembered a question she'd been meaning to ask him, "Professor, do you have any evolutionary stone fragments? Steven and I want to start really training our Sandshrew into finding them. I know that we got those evolutionary items from the tournament, but I'm sending them home as soon as possible."

"I do have a few samples that I don't need anymore, but may I ask why you're sending yours home?" Professor Oak asked.

Taking a deep breath, Vali began her explanation, "After Steven and I got back from the tournament, we started putting our stuff away. I had taken off my gloves after putting my stuff away since I didn't need them on. Steven got a Fire Stone as well and gave it to me since I'd actually use it. When I touched it, we both saw bits and pieces of the visions I've had. It only stopped because the stone got dropped to the floor. When I picked it up with my scarf, it was burning hot even through the fabric. I haven't tried touching any of my evolutionary items since it happened."

"Oh dear," Professor Oak looked a bit pale, "Are you two alright?"

"Steven seems fine, but I've been having dreams again," Vali admitted reaching up to touch Fawkes' feather, "I'm sending them home as soon as the post office opens tomorrow,"

"I understand why now, but do you think it would happen if you touched the stone fragments?" Professor Oak asked with a worried frown.

Vali shook her head, "Since the fragments no longer hold any evolutionary energy, I should be fine. Even if it did happen, I would wear my gloves when handling them though to be honest, I think the whole thing only happens when it comes to fire stones."

Professor Oak gained a contemplative look, "Perhaps you're right. If it only happens when you're around a high concentration of fire-type energy then you should be fine, the only question is why now? You've handled Fire Stones before and spent lots of time around the various fire-types at the lab."

Vali shrugged lightly, "Until I can ask the questions that I need to ask, we aren't going to get an answer, Professor."

Professor Oak nodded, "Keep me up to date on everything, okay, Vali? Delia and Sirius are very worried about you."

"I know," It killed her to think that she was worrying them, "So he's been home?"

"Yes, he'll be staying home while it's Regulus' breeding season outside of going to keep up his training and doing paperwork," Professor Oak answered making Vali smile a bit, "I have it on good authority that he might be proposing to Delia soon,"

Vali grinned at that, "About time though if he doesn't do it soon, I think she'll be the one doing the proposing."

Professor Oak snorted with a laugh, "That seems like a definite possibility."

Flushing as her stomach rumbled, Vali said, "I think it's time I go get dinner."

"I'll send the evolutionary stone fragments soon. Do try checking out the Vermilion Gym outside of your gym battles and mention Eevee history to Surge," Professor Oak told her earning a nod, "He might have a few tips on how to help Eevee,"

Vali nodded as she wondered how exactly Surge could help, "Thanks for the tip, Professor. I'll talk you if anything comes up."

* * *

Vermilion City Gym home of the hard ass Lt. Surge who was well known for his brutal tactics when it came to stomping out any crime within his city no matter how small. Vermilion City was perhaps the safest city in Kanto and that was almost fully thanks to the war veteran that watched over it. Vali admired the man both for the powerful pokemon he had and what he did to keep the city safe. Just like with any type of pokemon, it took a special hand to become a electric type master. It was a well known fact that if Surge didn't prefer his current job, he would be on the Elite four faster than you could say 'Pika'. How else would the man be even more feared than Giovanni?

Vali reached the doors and watched as they slid open before walking inside. Balto trotted at her side looking around curiously while Pikachu offered the area around him a wary look. She focused on the front desk which held a rather striking magenta haired woman that looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "Can I help you, Miss?"

"I was hoping to see Lt. Surge," Vali answered as she reached up to settle Pikachu down a bit, "Professor Oak recommended that I talk to him about one of my pokemon," The woman's silvery brown eyes went to Pikachu, "Not him, but another of my pokemon. An Eevee that I rescued from a rather...horrid situation,"

The woman nodded with a frown, "Let me see what I can do. Sit down in one of those chairs," She pointed to the chairs lining the walls, "You might not be able to see him today."

"That's fine, Miss," Vali offered her a light smile.

The woman inclined her head and Vali went to take a seat. She pulled Pikachu into her lap and gently rubbed his cheek pouches which never failed to calm him down. Pikachu began to relax though she knew he would react at a moments notice if something happened. She wondered why he was reacting like this, but supposed it had something to do with the atmosphere that only he could sense. Perhaps he felt all the electric-types inside the building and worried they might try to attack them? She jolted a bit when one of the doors that sat apart from the one leading into the battlefield slammed open. Lt. Surge came stomping out, "Where's the baby that-" He cut himself off as he caught sight of her, "Hey, you're that kid that won the female division of the tournament. The one with that interesting Pikachu."

"Yes, Sir," Vali decided to be polite.

"You did a pretty damn good job. I mean your technique is a bit rough, but still not bad," Lt. Surge grinned slightly as he walked over, "Why are you here? And none of that 'Sir' bull crap. You ain't one of my soldiers,"

Vali nodded as she stood up with Pikachu climbing onto her shoulder giving the large man a glare that only made Lt. Surge grin a bit larger, "One of my pokemon, an Eevee, was in a rather horrible situation that I saved him from. While he's physically healed, he isn't mentally. And-"

Lt. Surge's grin dropped as he raised a hand to cut her off. He looked serious as he peered at her, "Follow me, Kid. Monica," He turned to the woman, "I don't want to be interrupted until this kid leaves."

"Of course, Surge," The woman, Monica, nodded.

Lt. Surge led her through the doorway he'd come from and they ended up walking along some hallways that wouldn't have looked out of place in a hospital. The gym leader was silent as they walked and Vali was reluctant to break that silence especially as Pikachu grew more agitated the further they walked. Even Balto seemed a bit agitated though less so than Pikachu, she was starting to feel an almost buzzing sensation against her skin that was almost like her magic, but not. They ended up in a rather clean office with a Raichu curled up on a bed near the only window in the room that looked out at the ocean and the Jolteon napping on the window's ledge. Lt. Sure finally spoke as the two pokemon woke up and peered at the new comers with curiosity, "Take a seat, Kid."

Vali did as he asked and had Balto settle at her feet while Pikachu sat in her lap, "Surge-"

"Kid, you're the one that rescued that Eevee from that group of boys a couple months back, aren't you?" Lt. Surge asked earning a nod, "I got the report since abused and mistreated pokemon are a big part of my job for the League. You've guts saving him like that," Lt. Surge cracked a smile, "I like that about you, Kid. It's why I authorized his placement with you rather than have him sent here after he was healed up,"

"You did?" Vali probably shouldn't be so surprised considering his job, "I didn't know that,"

Lt. Surge chuckled a bit, "Not many do, I like keeping it that way to prevent idiots and the rest from attempting to come after the pokemon that end up in my care."

"Understandable," Vali now understood why Professor Oak sent her to him, "Professor Oak suggested that I meet with you at some point while in Vermilion city. He said you might have some tips for me to help get Eevee to trust me a bit more and let me help him,"

Lt. Surge nodded as he sat down in his chair and the Raichu jumped into his lap earning a slight smirk as the man immediately began to pet it, "I can, but first I want you to tell me what you've been trying, how he acts around you, how he acts around your pokemon, and how he reacts around those around you."

* * *

By the time Vali was finished giving Lt. Surge all the information he wanted and realizing that she knew more than she realized, her mouth felt like she'd swallowed a pound of salt and her jaw felt like she'd attempted to chew through Hagrid's rock cakes. Lt. Surge gave her a bottle of water, "You've done good with him so far and managed to avoid making a lot of mistakes too. I don't have too much to offer in the way of advice other than keep up what you're doing."

"Nothing?" Vali was glad to hear that Lt. Surge thought she was doing good, but she knew she could be doing more.

"Try slowly getting closer to him during the times you rest or eat," Lt. Surge suggested earning a nod, "Word of advice, do not try to give him a soothe bell,"

"How come?" Vali hadn't been planning on try to get one seeing as they were almost as expensive as evolutionary stones.

"Abused pokemon do not react well to them. Soothe bells are calming to pokemon, right?" Lt. Surge said as Vali nodded slowly, "To an abused pokemon, soothe bells make them vulnerable. It makes them panic and go into a berserk state in an attempt to get rid of the soothe bell,"

Vali nodded as she took out her pokedex and made a note in Eevee's entry to never let him near a soothe bell, "I'll do my best to keep him away from them."

Lt. Surge looked pleased, "Good. I would also advise trying to spend one on one time with him even if it's just sitting near him. It'll let him know you're there."

"Kind of like what I'm doing with Terra, my Larvitar," Vali added that last part at his confused look.

"How is it setting in?" Lt. Surge asked her curiously, "Sometimes it can be hard on bred pokemon to fit in with their new trainers,"

"Fairly well especially since my pokemon are doing their best to make sure she knows that they accept her," Vali was proud of her pokemon, "They're still deciding who's going to head to the ranch when the time comes,"

Lt. Surge grinned a bit, "I'm liking you more and more, Kid."

* * *

Vali ended up heading to the Pokemon center with Lt. Surge for dinner. They had ended up talking about the Pichu-line and everything pretty much went from there considering the man was an expert. She now had a better idea of how to train Pikachu up before she evolved him and what to do afterward. She also had a better idea of how to get her pokemon faster and would be putting it into action especially with her slower pokemon. While Idril and Terra were naturally slow outside of the ground, she planned on ensuring they both got as fast as possible especially before either of them evolved.

Steven looked a bit surprised when she showed up with Lt. Surge before offering the electric-type gym leader a warm smile when she explained what had happened. Lt. Surge and Steven ended up spending the entirety of dinner and an hour after it discussing electric/steel-type pokemon mostly the Magnemite-line since it was the most common in Kanto. Vali found that she liked the gym leader and didn't find him as scary as most did. Oh, he was someone to fear on the battlefield given some of their discussions today and the videos of his battles on the web. There wasn't a doubt in her mind about that she would have to work her ass off to get her team ready to face his, she didn't find him scary outside of the battlefield. If anything, she respected him even more if only because of how easy it seemed for him to seperate the side he used for battles and the side he used for everything else.

Vali found herself spending time around Lt. Surge's gym either to use the facilities to help Pikachu get his electricity stronger or to pick the man's brain about how to better help Eevee. She found herself laughing a bit one day when she realized that her relationship with the various Kanto gym leaders she'd met so far was pretty odd though mostly after Pewter city. Somehow, she'd managed to be on friendly terms with them thus learning a lot more about pokemon then she actually thought she would. She could wait to see what happened when she met the other gym leaders, but hoped it went almost as well.

* * *

Finally, the day was on them and Vali's pokemon had to pick who to send home. Vali ended up using the pokemon center's kitchen to cook breakfast for her pokemon to ensure that no matter who went home, they all had one last good memory with everyone around them. She felt sad about sending someone to the ranch despite knowing that this wouldn't be the last time she saw them or that she could always have Professor Oak send them back. She hated the idea of being without a single one of them. Of her pokemon, Balto, Smaug, Pikachu, and Celina were the only ones that could go home. Idril, Arwen, and Terra were still too new and needed her attention. Eevee was on her inactive team and wouldn't be sent back until the end of their deal if he decided that he didn't want to be with her. As a result, she would be sending home a pokemon that had been with her since the beginning of her journey which sucked.

After breakfast, Vali looked over each of her eldest pokemon, "It's time for you guys to decide."

Vali had made it clear that she hated the idea of sending any of them away and they knew that it was killing her to even think about doing it. They looked at one another before Celina stepped forward with a determined look on her face. Gently hugging the Pidgeotto, Vali promised to check up on her when she could. She outlined a training schedule for Celina and asked the Pidgeotto to do her best to stay healthy. After returning Celina to her pokeball, she headed to the video phones to contact Professor Oak. Professor Oak offered her a sympathetic look, "She'll be fine, Vali."

"I know, Professor. It just hurts knowing that she isn't going to be with me unless I send someone else back," Vali sighed deeply, "Does it get any better, Professor?"

"No, but at the very least, you know she'll be in good hands and it isn't forever," Professor Oak replied before they got down to business.

Professor Oak released Celina the moment she came to his lab and allowed Vali a few more minutes to say goodbye.

* * *

Eevee stared at the female, Vali, and her pack of odd pokemon actually feeling _concerned._ It was an odd feeling to have especially when it was directed at a human which only made it clear that somehow he was beginning to get attached to them. He looked towards Vali and felt a small amount of wonder at how she was acting. Unlike his former trainer, she actually seemed to care about one of her pokemon being gone even if it was only at the laboratory. She seemed to be feeling the separation as keenly as all of her pokemon. Did she really miss the Pidgeotto?

A tiny voice in his mind that he'd been trying to snuff out since Vali had rescued him spoke up again. She did care about the Pidgeotto. Why else would she be as listless as the pack? He tried to argue that it could just be a show only for the voice to snap that their nose could smell her sadness. He had to admit that the voice was right. She smelt just as sad as everyone else save for the Larvitar who didn't really know the bird pokemon. The voice was a bit smug as it reminded him that she'd never smelled of deceitful emotions. Looking back at when they'd first met, he realized that the voice was right. The only negative emotions she'd smelt of were directed at his former trainer and that gang of cronies he had.

As Eevee peered at Vali as his chest began to burn a bit with the small embers of hope surging, he wondered if maybe he should trust her a bit more. Maybe just maybe, Vali was worth his trust.

* * *

When Vali woke up the morning, she was surprised to find Eevee sleeping on the pillow right next to her head. Smiling at the sight, she slowly sat up trying not to disturb him. Eevee's eyes slid open as she sat up fully and he peered at her. She offered him a smile and murmured, "Good morning, Eevee."

Eevee dipped his head lightly in reply before closing his eyes again. Vali began extracting herself from the bed that had been almost completely taken over by her pokemon feeling hopeful that just maybe Eevee was actually beginning to trust her. She carefully moved Terra's head off of her right leg before doing the same with Idril who clutched her leg like a koala bear would clutch a tree branch. When she finally managed to get free without waking up anyone, she glanced back at the bed and had to laugh a bit. Pikachu had managed to wedge himself between the pillow and the headboard. Balto was sprawled out on across the foot of the bed with Smaug's head on his side. Smaug was dangling halfway off the bed with his tail just barely avoiding touching the ground. Arwen was sleeping standing up with her head on Balto's side right next to Smaug. She grabbed the fire proof mat laying almost off of the bed and placed it underneath Smaug's tail. Once that was done, she took a picture of the rather cute sight before going to take a shower.

When she finished her shower and got dressed in her clothes, Vali found Steven leaning against the wall across from the bathroom. Steven offered her a sleepy nod as he moved past her to get into the bathroom for his own morning routine. Walking over to her bed, she found everyone in almost the same exact place she'd left them only Idril and Terra were curled up together with the Sandshrew using the Larvitar as a teddy bear. Taking another picture knowing Delia would love to see this, she began the process of waking everyone up well aware of Eevee observing the process. Once everyone was up, she returned them so they could go outside and do their business without having to wait very long. She looked at Eevee and asked, "Do you want to be returned as well or would you like to walk with me?"

Eevee jumped down from the bed and moved to stand beside her. Understanding what he wanted, she grabbed one of her journals, a pen, and her pokedex before heading to the door.

* * *

Steven commented on Eevee's behavior during their run around the training field they were using for their morning training, "Is it just me or is Eevee trying to let you get closer to him."

"I think that he's actually going to try putting his trust in me," Vali answered as they ran together, "I don't know why, but I'm not going to look a gift Ponyta in the mouth. It's more progress than he's showed since Professor Oak sent him to me,"

"So you're just going to go with the flow?" Steven asked earning a nod.

"What else can I do?" Vali was just glad that Eevee seemed to be trying.

* * *

Zaria yawned as she sat down at the table Vali and Steven chose to eat lunch at, "Morning."

"It's nearly two, Zaria," Vali pointed out earning a shrug, "Were you up late last night?"

"Mhmm. Dark-types are easier to train at night because that's when they're at their best," Zaria picked up her cup of coffee, "So have you two decided when you're going to face Lt. Surge? I got my battle with him in two days,"

"We scheduled ours for two weeks from now," Steven answered earning a raised eyebrow.

"Why two weeks? Why not sooner?" Zaria asked them curiously.

Vali answered the question after swallowing the food in her mouth, "To make sure our pokemon are prepared for the battle ahead of us."

"I guess that makes sense," Zaria shrugged lightly, "Where will you two be headed after this?"

"Celadon," Steven answered as Vali's mouth was full, "Then Fuchsia, Saffron, Cinnabar, and finally Viridian,"

"So you're going after the hardest gyms in the badge run, huh?" Lance commented as he walked up with his own tray of food, "Nice to see that at least one of my future elite four members isn't chickening out on the hard stuff,"

Vali shook her head lightly, "I still haven't decided if I'll shoot for elite four yet. I kind of need more than two fire-types to be considered a master. Besides, you can't make someone a member of the elite four especially not in Kanto," Elite four were the final defense of a region alongside the champion for a damn good reason, My pokemon aren't even close to elite level."

It would take a few years for that to happen even under the direction of Blaine if she managed to get him to teach her. Vali was about to say something when all the pokedexs in the room went off. She took out her pokedex and heard Lance mutter, "Oh shit."

Oh shit was right, Vali had to stare at the League alert running across her screen:

 _All able body trainers in the vicinity of Vermilion city are to report to the gym immediately. Code Gaia Flare._

* * *

Upon reaching the gym, all trainers were directed through a series of stairwells and a tunnel into a large cavernous room lined with crates. By the time all the trainers had gathered only a sixth of the room was filled up, Vali stuck close to Steven, Lance, and Zaria as the steel-type master muttered, "There's fifty trainers here."

"What the fuck does code Gaia Flare mean anyway?" Zaria asked looking around at the slightly panicked faces of the trainers around them.

"It means there is a big enough wild fire going on that they're calling in everyone they can to help," Vali answered earning a surprised look, "Didn't they teach you that before you came to Kanto?"

"No well not with that code name," Lance shook his head, "Would have been nice if they had,"

"I'll see if I can get a list of all the codes we have and give them to you. If you're going to be in Kanto, you need to know what's going on if stuff like this happens," Vali would have to talk to Professor Oak to make sure he got the list sent to every foreign trainer just to be safe, "I am not looking forward to this,"

Vali hoped that she wouldn't have any visions if she ended up near the blaze. Lt. Surge cut off all conversation, "Shut it, Maggots!" The man was in full on command mode and every snapped to attention immediately, "For those not in the know, Code Gaia Flare means a massive wild fire is occurring nearby. The Rangers aren't able to contain the blaze as well as help the various wild pokemon out of danger. The League is deploying ACE trainers, but they need our help as well due to how large the blaze is. You'll be divided into groups based on your pokemon, their typing, and your time as a trainer," He pointed to the far wall where a number of computer consuls and gym trainers were standing, "Form lines there and get your pokedex scanned. If you even think about disobeying, I'll have your license suspended and your pokemon taken away immediately," When no one moved, Lt. Surge barked, "Did I fucking stutter? GO!"

The lines moved fairly quickly and soon Vali found herself in a group with Zaria. The gym trainer in charge said, "Okay, we're going to be working on snuffing out the blaze near the edges. Each of you have either Rock or Ground types at your disposal, you're going to have them dig up large quantities of dirt and fling it into the fire."

Vali raised her hand and the Gym Trainer acknowledged her, "I have a fire-type that knows dig as well as a Pikachu that knows it too."

"Your fire-type, what is it exactly?" The Gym Trainer asked her.

"A Growlithe. I have a Charmeleon as well," Vali added earning a nod.

"You'll probably have an extra job once we get this shit started, so keep your ears open. Have that Growlithe and Pikachu help out," The Gym Trainer ordered.

* * *

Even from the 'safe' distance, Vali could feel the sheer heat coming from the wild fire. Idril and Terra were scared but she kept them as calm as she could. Idril taught Terra how to use Dig with Balto and Pikachu. Smaug, Arwen and her were flinging the dirt that the quartet brought up into the blaze as fast as possible with her using some of her magic to make it easier. She pulled her scarf up higher over her nose when it began slipping down while making a mental note to get a water-type as soon as she could if only to prevent causing a blaze like this. While unsure how she knew it, the blaze had been stared by a fire-type move from an fire-type. She supposed it had something to do with her inner flame which only made her want to know more about it.

Eventually, Vali had to return Idril and Terra as the two were lacked the same stamina as Balto and Pikachu. Arwen only kept up because she was a Ponyta and had been running with the herds since she was born. Once the two were recovered, she set them back to their work while inwardly chuckling at the fact Terra was snacking on the soil as she dug. Considering she needed the nutrients the dirt provided and that it was helping her stay strong, the fire-type trainer wasn't going to protest.

As Vali's muscles began to protest, a Gym Trainer ran up to her with an unfamiliar ranger, "Oi! Potter!"

"Yes, Ma'am?" Vali stopped as did her pokemon.

"Return all your pokemon safe for the Growlithe and Ponyta," The Gym Trainer ordered earning a confused nod as she did as she was told, "You're going with Ranger Mor,"

The Gym Trainer raced off leaving Vali, Balto, and Arwen looking at the Ranger with interest. The Ranger offered her a warm grin, "Nice to finally meet you, Vali. Sirius told me a lot about you."

"Nice to meet you, Ranger Mor," Vali replied with an eye roll, "Word of advice, don't believe everything that old dog says about me,"

Ranger Mor let out a laugh, "Right. Anyway, have you ridden that Ponyta of yours before?"

"No. Since I've been working on getting her used to me and training her up, I haven't really had the time," Vali looked at Arwen who perked up a bit, "Why?"

"Looks like you'll get your chance," Ranger Mor answered as he released a Rapidash, "This here is Gene, he's my buddy. You're going to be following us as closely as possible through the blaze. We're going to be looking for pokemon that might have been trapped which is where you're Growlithe comes in,"

With that, Vali was put through a rushed lesson on how to ride a Ponyta bare back which was the safest thing to do in this kind of situation.

* * *

Racing through the blaze on Arwen's back with Balto running right beside her was an exhilarating feeling that made her promise to ride the Ponyta more often, Vali would have preferred their first ride would have been in a better situation. Ranger Mor had them a quick pace though it was definitely slower than he probably normally went though that was to be expected seeing as they needed Balto to be able to help find any wild pokemon. Unlike Arcanine, Growlithe couldn't scent the air while running at their top speed without great difficulty. They had to be specially trained and only the police/Rangers trained them like that. As it was, they had managed to find several wild pokemon that were captured using specially designed pokeballs that sent the captured pokemon to the nearest healing facility. In this case, they were sent to the base.

Despite the withering flames and the smoke that was clouding her vision, Vali found the scenes fairly beautiful. It showed the destructive power of fire even as it offered the earth nutrients that would make whatever grew where the fire destroyed that much stronger. She almost wished she'd had time to grab her camera and take pictures of it. A small smile drew its way across her scarf covered lips as she saw the fire engulf a tree. The sight strangely beautiful as the old was eaten away to give birth to the new. She was taken from her thoughts as Ranger Mor called out, "Beautiful isn't it?"

"Dangerously so," Vali agreed just as Balto let out a howling bark causing them to stop.

They found him digging out a pair of Oddish being guarded by a Gloom that looked a bit panicked by them. Ranger Mor calmed them down and quickly captured them only to gasp at the sight that was hiding behind the wild pokemon. A trio of pokemon eggs. Ranger Mor cursed under his breath, "Damn it," He tapped his ear piece, "This is Ranger Argus Mor, I'm with Trainer Valkyrie Potter. We got a situation. Three pokemon eggs found."

Ranger Mor nodded slowly and tapped his ear piece. Vali looked at him in concern, "What do we do?"

"We need to get them out of here. A pair of Rangers will be coming to take them to the facility," Ranger Mor answered as he took out a storage device and pulled out three incubators, "Let's get them inside, it's a shame we can't use a storage device on them,"

In a matter of moments, they had the eggs safely contained in the incubators which would keep them from being affected by outside elements. Ranger Mor decided that they needed to fully search the area. If there were three eggs, it was likely this was a nursery area for the wild pokemon which no one save for Ekans would bother the eggs unless it was winter when food got scarce. In the end, they discovered over forty diffrent pokemon and triple that in eggs if not more. The other team of Rangers came and ended up having to call even more to help transport them. As the Rangers worked, Balto led Vali over to another area where they ended up moving a fallen tree to reveal a heavily pregnant Ninetales laying on her side. The Ninetales looked at her with a minor glare before wincing and a glance towards her lower end revealed an evaporating pool of liquid. Mentally curse, she called out, "Ranger Mor!"

"Wh-Oh fuck me!" Ranger Mor cursed as he caught sight of the heavily pregnant Ninetales.

"What do we do?" Vali asked as Balto nudged her closer to the Ninetales, "We can't capture her in one of those special pokeballs with her this close to giving birth,"

Vali found herself flinching away from a high powered Flamethrower aimed at Ranger Mor, "Damn it!"

Vali turned back to the Ninetales who was really close right now and found herself staring into a pair of deep crimson pools. Images of her own life flashed before her eyes, she was shocked to see memories of her parents that she didn't even know she had. Eventually, she found herself falling back a bit as a feminine voice murmured, _"You."_

Vali shook her head lightly as a headache began to build, "You want me to help you leave this place?"

The Ninetales nodded as Ranger Mor asked, "What do you mean?"

"I...I heard her speak to me," Vali answered before shaking her head again, "We need to get her out of here,"

Vali carefully picked the Ninetales up making sure to be very careful of the fox pokemon's belly. Ranger Mor nodded, "Alright. You'll need to take Gene since he knows the exact way out of the forest and will take you to one of the other Rangers. I'll keep Balto and Arwen with me while we look for more pokemon."

Vali was a bit reluctant at leaving her pokemon with someone else, but the determined looks they gave her said enough. She nodded as Ranger Mor whistled for Gene, "Alright. You two," Balto and Arwen looked at her carefully, "Obey Ranger Mor like you would me. Do your best to protect each other and him from the fires. If you get tired, let him know immediately."

Ranger Mor helped her onto Gene's back and then she was off. Keeping a hold on Gene and Ninetales would have been almost impossible if it hadn't been for her magic, Vali whispered to Ninetales to just hold on a bit longer. Ninetales spoke again as they raced through the forest, _"He calls to you."_

"He?" Vali had a feeling 'he' was the one sending her those vision.

 _"The Lord of Flames. She calls to you as well, but not to the point as He does,"_ Ninetales murmured softly before letting out a small whine as Gene jarred them a bit when jumping over a fallen tree.

"Why though?" Vali was glad that she was finally getting some kind of answer.

 _"I do not know only sense their calls,"_ Ninetales laid her head on Vali's arm, " _I've never met a human with a flame like yours,"_

"I seem to be doing the impossible a lot," Vali tried to joke a bit, "How are you feeling, Ninetales?"

 _"It hurts, but it is a manageable hurt. Luckily, I've been through this before though keeping myself from birth is fairly difficult,"_ Ninetales murmured softly, " _Thank you,"_

Vali shook her head lightly as they approached the edge of the wild fire, "Don't thank me until we're out of this and you're able to have your cubs without worrying about the wild fire."

" _Odd human,"_ Ninetales chuckled a bit.

"Says the kitsune that's speaking to me despite not being a psychic-type or capable of using Telepathy," Vali snarked a bit earning a small laugh that cut off into a whine, "Easy, Ninetales. You just need to wait a bit longer,"

Gene exited the blaze and jumped over the gaping hole in the ground that was keeping it from spreading further. Vali caught sight of Steven who stared at her with wide eyes from Metagross' back and she offered him a light wave. Oh, she was definitely going to be questioned when they met up after everything was said and done.

* * *

Ninetales snapped at anyone that tried to touch her causing Vali to be the one to carry the pregnant fox to the area where all the pokemon affected by the fire were being place. When they got there and Ninetales snapped at everyone again, she was directed to place the pregnant fox in a small room off to the side with some bedding on the ground. Once she place Ninetales down, she went to leave only for the fox to prevent her. As a result, she was present for the fox giving birth and ended up helping it along by channeling some of her magic into Ninetales when the fox began to struggle. By the end of it, Ninetales had four eggs which baffled her a little bit seeing as it was a well known fact you'd be lucky to get two eggs with a rare third one.

Ninetales tiredly instructed Vali in caring for the eggs seeing as each type of pokemon had specific ways to care for their eggs and she hadn't really cared for pokemon eggs beyond the ones that came into the Professor's lab. Only when the eggs were taken care of was she able to leave and head back into the fray so to speak.

* * *

It took three days to quell the massive fire even with the various cities around Kanto offering their help not to mention the current champion getting Hoenn to send a team of Castforms to bring about some much needed rainstorms. Once the blaze was quelled, they managed to find the cause of it. A Magmar had been caught by a heavily inexperienced trainer that had been lucky to catch said pokemon after it had been knocked out during a battle against another of its kind. The kid was yet another example as to why certain pokemon weren't meant to be caught unless you knew what you were doing. Considering the kid had died due the Magmar's resulting rage upon realizing it had been caught by human without honor and brought to a land far from its former home, the kid was fairly lucky despite the way he had died if only because it meant he wouldn't be facing the harsh punishment that the League would have placed on him.

Magmar as a rule were honorable beings despite their sadistic tendencies. Unless you got it as a Magby or hatched it from an egg, you had to battle a Magmar and win the battle in order to be considered a worthy trainer. While Magby were child-like and cheerful, its later evolutions were some of the worst examples of fire-type pride. With that in mind, Vali wasn't going to consider catching one until she could either win a fight head on or manage to get a Magby.

Vali turned away from the TV with a frown as Zaria muttered, "I don't know whether to feel bad for the kid or not."

"Considering the fact he suffered greatly before his death, I'd say feel a bit bad for him," Lance grimaced slightly having been one of the first ones to find the kid's corpse.

"What I want to know is how he managed to get off Cinnabar," Vali said earning a few looks, "As someone with a vested interest in fire-types, I've looked up everything that I could about them including the laws involving them. Cinnabar is one of the only places in Kanto you can get a Magmar," She took out her pokedex and shifted through the notes she had on all the pokemon she was hoping to eventually catch before finding the ones about Magmar, "There are specific laws barring anyone with a Magmar from leaving Cinnabar unless they've been personally vetted by Blaine or one of the older Gym Trainers that are experienced in training Magmar. Adding on, you have to have a permit to own a Magmar/Magmortar due to the severe danger they present to the world at large. There is a damn good reason why you don't find them anywhere in Kanto except on Cinnabar," She gestured to the TV which was still talking about the wild fire, "If you think the wild fire created by that Magmar was bad, you should look at the ones created by stronger ones or a Magmortar. There is a reason Blaine's seen as less than sane due to the fact he's a master of the Magmar evolutionary-line," She ran a hand through her hair which still felt dirty and brittle due to the fact she'd been in and out of the wildfire ever since Ranger Mor drafted her to look for pokemon that needed help, "So how the fuck did that kid without even a single badge managed to get off of Cinnabar with a Arceus be damned Magmar?"

"That's what we're attempting to figure out," Lt. Surge answered from behind her and she turned to see him staring down at her.

"Hope you figure it out soon," Vali muttered feeling exhausted.

"You look like shit," Lt. Surge smirked a bit.

"Considering the fact I was right inside the fire with the Ranger's since I got drafted to look for pokemon, I'm allowed to look as shitty as I feel," Vali glared a bit at him.

You could hear a pen drop at how quiet it got around her as those words rang through the air. Zaria muttered, "Holy shit, you actually cursed in front of a Gym Leader."

"Well excuse me if I'm a bit testy since I got shit for sleep since that little brat decided to release a fucking Magmar in a place that hasn't seen rain in weeks," Vali bit out earning a roar of laughter from Lt. Surge.

Ranger Mor chuckled as he said, "Sirius was right, you're an absolute riot when you're tired."

Vali offered the male a glare that had him flinching away from her before she looked at Lt. Surge who was guffawing, "What brings you two here anyway?"

"Certain vixen is throwing a fit," Ranger Mor answered earning a blank look from Vali since all the pokemon she'd saved ended up kind of blurring together after that first hour in the fire.

"The pregnant Ninetales that threw a bitch fit if anyone other than you tried to touch her," Lt. Surge offered as clarification with an amused smirk, "I actually like that spunky fox,"

"Oh," Vali remembered the Ninetales that could apparently sense that she had the attention of not one, but two powerful beings interested in her.

"Anyway, we're kind of hoping you wouldn't mind coming with us to see what's bothering her so we can transport her and her eggs to a facility that can take care of them while the land is repaired," Ranger Mor said earning a confused look, "She won't speak to anyone else telepathically and none of the psychic-types currently around here have recovered enough to speak with her,"

Biting back a yawn, Vali said, "Sure, I guess..."

"Good!" Ranger Mor grinned at her, "Let's get going,"

* * *

Immediatly upon entering the small room where Ninetales was resting, the loud growling immediately stopped. Vali offered the vixen a raised eyebrow as sighs of relief sounded from behind her, "What exactly is the problem? They're trying to send you and your cubs to a safe place until your home is repaired."

 _"I wanted them to bring me you now that the fire is over,"_ Ninetales answered as she curled up around her eggs.

Vali blinked slowly at the satisfied vixen before turning to Lt. Surge as she held up the coffee he'd given her, "Did you drug this?"

"No," Lt. Surge looked baffled by the suggestion, "Why?"

"Apparently she wanted to you to bring me to her," Vali answered earning a surprised look.

Lt. Surge, Ranger Mor, and the Nurse Joy that was tasked with taking care of Ninetales stared at the vixen. Lt. Surge promptly started laughing, "That's one way to get what she wants."

"So what does she want with you?" Ranger Mor asked her curiously.

Shrugging, Vali turned back to the vixen, "What do you want with me?"

The vixen waved Vali over with a tail and the trainer slowly did as she was bid. The moment she reached Ninetales saw the vixen picking up one of her eggs which was being cradled gently within her tails before holding it out to the trainer. Instinct taking control, she took the egg from it's mother and began to cradle it against her chest as the vixen murmured, " _Four eggs is my biggest litter. The egg in your arms is smaller than the others, no?"_

Vali looked at the egg she was holding and nodded lightly as she noticed that it wasn't nearly as big, "Yeah, I suppose this means the pokemon inside is a runt?"

Ninetales nodded lightly, " _The cub inside would not survive in the wild unless I paid it more attention than my other cubs."_

Vali realized what was going on, "You want me to take this egg?"

Ninetales inclined her head seemingly to smile at the trainer, " _Indeed, I know the cub inside will be cherished and given the love they will need to grow up in the a great Ninetales."_

"But why me?" Vali asked feeling her heart beat quicken a bit.

 _"Why not you?"_ Ninetales replied cocking her head to the side, _"You wish to have a Ninetales eventually. What better partner could you have than one you raised from an egg?"_

"I suppose," Vali looked back down at the egg, "Are you completely sure?"

 _"Yes,"_ Ninetales curled a tail around Vali's arm and squeezed lightly, " _Raise the cub well, Valkyrie Potter,"_

"I'll do my best," Vali murmured feeling a small headache begin to form.

Ninetales released her arm and pointed her muzzle towards the door. Knowing a dismissal when she saw one, Vali moved towards the doorway. When she reached it, Ranger Mor commented, "Well that's one of the most convoluted ways to get a pokemon egg."

"Yeah," Vali shook her head lightly, "I think she'll let you move her now,"

* * *

Vali held the incubator holding her new egg as Zaria, Lance, and Steven peered at it curiously. Zaria commented, "I can't believe you got an egg on top of the TM vouchers we're getting as a reward for helping with the fire."

"Not that you could really refuse," Steven commented looking away from the egg.

Vali yawned softly, "Yeah, but I think that's enough bizarre shit for one day. I'm going to bed."

"I'll wake you up for dinner," Steven offered earning a sleepy smile before Vali headed to the stairs.

Zaria shook her head as Vali disappeared from view, "I did not expect her to curse so much."

"I think it only happens when she's tried," Steven couldn't remember her ever cursing so much.

Lance snorted, "You're lucky then. Some of the girls I've met since starting my journey can curse worse than sailors including my own cousin."

Steven glanced at the red haired dragon tamer before deciding not to ask. Instead, he said, "I'm going to go check on my pokemon and call home. My father is probably worried about me if he's heard the news. I might as well call Vali's family as well."

"Hey, Steven before you do that," Lance said causing Steven to turn to the other teen, "Why did you decide to travel with her? No offense to Vali, but I would have thought you'd go it alone if only to get finished with the badge run quicker,"

Steven shrugged as he put his hands into his pockets, "You can't exactly say no to a request from Professor Oak. Once I met her, I decided that I couldn't have let her travel alone even if I'd been able to say no," A light smile crossed his lips, "She didn't deserve to miss out on her journey just because I didn't want to travel with someone."

Steven had more reasons than that, but they weren't something he'd say out loud least of all to Lance. While he didn't have a problem with the red haired teen, he disliked the idea of someone calling Vali theirs even if it was in a joking manner. Shaking his head, he returned to heading towards the front desk. He might as well get a report about Vali's own pokemon especially Balto and Arwen as they'd been in the fire alongside her. He still needed to talk to her about being inside the wild fire and the fact she hadn't slept much while it was going on. He'd barely slept too, but that was more out of worry about Vali. Thinking about her getting hurt in that wild fire just because the Rangers needed Balto's nose, it hadn't been easy to sleep at all.

* * *

 _Panic flooded through her veins as she raced through the forest, the chill of the dementors was too close. They were closing in on Sirius. No, she wouldn't let them take Sirius from her. She couldn't let it happen now that she knew the truth. She wouldn't lose the only adult to ever actually care for her. The small slope leading to the banks of the lake where Sirius lay unmoving on the ground was filled with rocks and bits of tree branches that dug into her skin as she rocketed down the slope. She felt the bite of the thorns and other sharp objects dig into her skin though they were far easier to ignore compared to the chill that was slowly seeping into the air._

 _Slamming onto the rocky bank, she felt her feet begin to slide underneath her and had to fight to keep her balance. After a brief struggle where she fell into the sharp rocks and added to the cuts already present on her skin, she managed to get herself steady and stumbled over to Sirius. She ignored the rocks digging into her knees when she reached him and began shaking him, "Sirius! Sirius! Wake up!"_

 _Sirius moved a bit only to still as the chill created by the dementors closed in on their position. Grabbing her wand from the holster she'd gotten during the summer, she began attempting to search for a happy memory even as her mother's voice bounced around her head. She felt the chill worsen as it seemed to dig into her skin in an attempt to get at her core. As the dementors began making their appearance, she cast the Patronus charm only to create just a bit of mist that only warded off a single dementor. They began to swarm and she began to hunch over a bit feeling the cold begin to rush through her veins. Tears formed at the edge of her eyes, she was going to lose Sirius to a fate worse than death._

Is this all that a bearer of the eternal flame can do?

 _The voice seemed to resonate through her causing the undying warmth near her core to began to radiate through her body banishing the cold as determination filled her. No, she wasn't going to lose Sirius until her dying breath. Taking in a deep breath of the chilly air as she prepared the memory of Sirius asking her to come live with him, she called out-_

 _"-Ke Up!"_ _Vali felt a bit confused as the scene around her began to disappear._

"Wake up!" Vali jerked awake at the sound of Steven shouting.

Vali opened her mouth to ask what was going on when she saw the flames slowly coiling through the air. She immediately closed her eyes and concentrating on sending the fire back to her core. When she finally managed to force it back into her core, she opened her eyes, "S-sorry about that."

"What were you dreaming of?" Steven asked with a slight frown, "You've never done something like that when you were sleeping before,"

"I...I think it was a dream of when I brought Sirius and I here," Vali sat up fully before grimacing at the fact she was covered in sweat, "The only thing is I don't remember hearing a voice in my mind before,"

"A voice?" Steven asked her looking even more concerned, "What kind of voice?"

"It was male and kinda like the one-" Vali cut herself off as a bolt of pain ran through her mind.

"The vision," Steven finished earning a nod, "What did it say?"

Vali opened her mouth to answer before shaking her head as the pain intensified, "C-can't."

Steven let out a frustrated sigh, "I really wish you could tell me."

"I'm sorry," Vali felt bad for what she was putting Steven through.

Vali knew that she wasn't the only one to suffer when her visions happened. Steven lost as much sleep as she did due to how worried he was about it. On the one hand, it was nice knowing that he cared about her. On the other hand, she felt like shit for worrying him so much. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Steven offering her a tired smile, "It's not your fault, Vali. We just need to figure out a way for you to tell me without being in pain."

Vali's stomach growled before she could answer causing her to flush a bit, "It's time for dinner, right?" Steven nodded, "Let me go take a quick shower and check on my egg then we can go."

* * *

It was interesting to see how the region recovered after environmental disasters. In the case of wild fires, Celadon city and Cerulean worked in tandem to restore the burned earth to life. Of course, they couldn't do much with fall coming, so they merely set things up to ensure that when spring came, the charred area was restored for the most part. For now, the various dead plants and pokemon that had died before the Rangers/ACE trainers could get to them were removed. The charred earth was eaten by a team of ground-types that transformed it into highly nutritious soil. The grass-types planted new trees and shrubs that would lessen the chance of runoff when it rained. New ponds, streams, creeks, and the like were created by the water types once the grass-types finished their jobs. Seeds that would either sprout into new grass, flowers, or bushes were planted once the area was finished being modified.

The wild pokemon were either given the chance to return or be moved to a new location once they were healed. Many of the wild pokemon with eggs decided to move to a diffrent area if only to give their babies a chance at life once winter came. In the case of a few unlucky pokemon that were too damaged by the fire to be released, they were moved to a facility that had been made to help the pokemon recover. The League funded facility was run by a group of Rangers that worked as doctors, nurses, and caretakers of the pokemon that resided in the facility. While they did have the regular Ranger training, they had extra medical training that would allow them to take care of the various pokemon under their care. According to Sirius, they were like Battlefield Healers only with a shit-ton more combat training.

In the case of those attempting the badge run that had scheduled their battles during the wild fire, Lt. Surge had his gym open extra hours to allow them the chance to complete their gym battles. To prevent those that hadn't scheduled their gym battles ahead of time from taking advantage of the extra hours, he had his secretary creating a definite list of all those that had been scheduled during that time. The sheer amount of battles that had been scheduled just showed you how many people didn't want to face the man when the kid gloves came off. As it was, Steven and Vali were very glad that they'd had the foresight to schedule their battles weeks in advance otherwise there was no telling when they'd actually get to battle the man.

* * *

Once her pokemon had recovered from the immense strain tackling that wild fire had placed on them, they began training in earnest for their gym battle. Lt. Surge typically used three pokemon when you went against him with out three badges. The first two pokemon tended to switch around quite a bit, but the last one was always a Raichu. Raichu were slower than Pikachu, but more than made up for it with the sheer power they had behind them as unlike Pikachu, the electric sacks on their cheeks were fully formed and able to hold far more electricity. They also had more control over their electricity which made getting hit by their attacks a really bad idea. As a result, Vali was going to go with Balto and Pikachu with her third pokemon still up in the air.

It was difficult to choose who to use during the battle despite Celina being at the Ranch. Smaug was a high possibility, but Vali had to consider her other options. Despite being experienced, Idril was a ground-type which would ensure that Lt. Surge's electrical attacks did nothing to her. She wasn't really considering either Arwen or Terra due to how new they were. Oh, Arwen would probably give a good showing especially if Lt. Surge used a Magnemite or Magneton, but Balto could take care of it just as well. Terra was still far too new and not strong enough to face Lt. Surge even with him being restricted by not having her third gym badge.

On the one hand, Smaug was strong and had far more experience than Idril. On the other hand, he had already been in a gym battle and she already had a fire-type fighting. On one hand, Idril was a ground-type which gave her an advantage over Lt. Surge. On the other hand, Lt. Surge more than likely had a counter for ground-types and Idril didn't have many ground-type attacks. Idril was still timid when it came to battling whereas Smaug had absolutely no problem with it. She still had time to choose though, so would be giving them equal attention.

A quick check with her dex provided a rather surprising development. Idril had learned Mud-Slap at some point during the wild fire which was good since it gave her another ground-type attack. Smaug hadn't learned anymore moves, but Vali was going to change that. Seeing as Lance had a Charizard that new quite a few attacks not to mention that his dragon-types would probably be able to help Smaug use his egg move, she asked the red haired trainer if his Charizard would mind taking Smaug under its wing. Lance agreed so long as she didn't mind having Terra battle his new Dratini which was easy to agree to since she needed to get used to commanding the ground and rock-type. Once that was done, she began focusing on having Idril hone her newly learned move before they moved onto learning another one.

Pikachu managed to learn Thunder Bolt then she had him learn Thunder Wave which was pretty much child's play for the mouse pokemon. Once he managed to learn that, Vali began looking through the attacks he could learn before settling on Double Team which led him to learning under Zaria's Seedot, Nuz, knew. In exchange for help learning the move, Pikachu would be hitting Zaria's pokemon with a low level Thunder Wave or other electric attack to help them get used to the electricity. It would help them both against Lt. Surge and every other electric-type out there that Zaria might end up coming across. Once Pikachu learned the move, she would have him teach her other pokemon that were able to learn it.

Balto finally managed to learn Reversal though that was only after using a bastardized version of it during a mock battle against Zaria's Zorua. Once he perfected it, Vali had him learn Flame Wheel alongside Arwen. Flame Wheel wasn't that hard to learn for either of the fire-types. As it was a speed-based attack, they were perfectly suited towards learning it. Of course, they both had trouble directing the move once they managed to learn the basics. The amount of time both of them had to be rushed into the pokemon center because they hit a rock too hard or each other made her very glad she didn't actually have to pay for the visits.

For Terra, Vali was focusing on seeing where her baseline was. Terra had a lot of power inside her small form, but not much stamina or speed. She had a good grasp of her attacks, but none of them were particularly powerful. She quickly worked out a training schedule for Terra after reading up on what was currently known about the Larvitar-line. She had Terra work on her stamina both with attacking and sustained movement making sure that the Larvitar walked beside her along with Balto to ensure her newest pokemon got more stamina. Terra also worked on increasing her speed as Tyranitar weren't exactly fast and her first stage was the only one that could work on speed as Pupitar were pretty much unable to move outside of releasing concussive blasts of air that sent them rocketing around. Of course, Terra would still be able to battle even as a Pupitar due to the fact she knew Ancient Power and with some modifications, she could actually use that move to move around.

* * *

Vali jogged around the training field her pokemon were currently practicing in with Steven. She was more than a little surprised to feel a small weight brush against her legs and looked down to see Eevee. She faltered a bit before catching herself as she asked, "Joining us for the run, Eevee?" Eevee let out a soft bark in reply which she took as an agreement, "Okay though take it easy since you haven't really been exercising much. I really don't want you to get overly exhaust yourself."

Eevee offered her another bark before focusing on keeping up with her. Vali entered into a light while keeping an eye on Eevee. When he began to lag, she slowed down to a jog then into a light trot. Eevee kept close to her throughout the run and stayed next to her during the exercises that she began to do though he seemed a bit confused. She explained each exercise and why she was doing them which seemed to make him happy. When she finally stopped to take a small breather and get some water, Eevee startled her by leaning into her side. She looked down at him and he peered up at her. Instead of saying anything, she merely nodded at him with a light smile.

When Vali settled down for the night, Eevee laid down on the pillow next to her head much to the surprise of her other pokemon though they were quick to accept him. Before moving to lay down in his usual spot, Balto paused to nuzzle Eevee lightly. Each of her other pokemon offered a surprisingly welcoming Eevee their own version of a goodnight. She laid down feeling her pokemon getting into their usual positions before she slowly reached out to Eevee. Pausing just before his muzzle, she watched as Eevee debated with himself before he leaned forward into her touch. With a gentle hand touching his soft fur, she pet him as she murmured, "Goodnight, Eevee. Sweet dreams."

* * *

Zaria's battle against Lt. Surge was harsh and she nearly lost if it weren't for Nuz the Seedot evolving at the last possible moment. It was a win by the skin of her teeth and the dark-type master-in-training knew it. It seemed to light a fire underneath her even hotter than the one that had motivated Vali's pokemon into training even harder before her battle at the Cerulean gym. Zaria stayed in Vermilion city for a few days after the battle both to ensure the newly evolved Nuzleaf was healthy and to finish Pikachu's Double Team training. During a walk together by the docks when she wanted some good pictures of the ocean to send home, Zaria admitted that she stayed longer to properly plan out her next course of action.

Zaria stared out at the sun soaked ocean, "I can't keep doing what I am. My team doesn't deserve having their asses kicked just because we didn't train hard enough."

"At the very least, you admit that you need to do more for them," Vali said as she raised her camera and took a picture of Zaria, "Just like them, we as trainers are constantly evolving. If it weren't for us spending a month in Cerulean and visiting the gym so much, I would've lost my second gym battle. I've been lucky that Steven and I have taken the time we have in each place to train otherwise there's no doubt in my mind that I'd lose my gym battles,"

"Aren't you two worried that you won't get all your gym badges in time for the League?" Zaria asked her with a slight frown.

Vali shrugged lightly as she leaned against the railing and began going through the pictures she'd taken so far that day, "To be honest, I don't care if I miss out on the League this year. If it means my pokemon will be better prepared for the next one, I can't really complain especially since by Kanto/Johto rules, the gym badges are valid for two years before you have to go against the gym leaders again."

"Guess that explains why you're so relaxed," Zaria commented with a sigh, "I wish I could be,"

Vali looked at her in concern, "Why are you in such a hurry?"

"My mom...If I don't compete in this years League conference or don't give a good enough showing, she might actually manage to convince my dad that I'm not ready to be a trainer," Zaria clenched her fist, "I get why she's so worried especially after that wild fire, but I'm so..."

"Frustrated?" Vali offered seeing Zaria look a bit lost.

Zaria nodded as she punched the railing a bit, "I've dreamed about becoming a dark-type master since I was a little kid after seeing an Umbreon win the Indigo Conference. The grace and power it had were amazing. My mom knows all that, but she just tries to keep me at home."

Vali felt a bit awkward as she patted Zaria's shoulder, "Parents will always worry about their kids especially when they're miles away. I may not know the full feeling since my actual parents died when I really young, but I know enough. Sirius worries a lot about me especially after what happened with the male Nidoran incident. Delia worries about me too despite the fact I'm not her actual child. Just give your mom time and she'll eventually come around."

"I guess you're right," Zaria offered her a light smile, "Thanks, Vali,"

"No problem," Vali raised her camera, "Mind posing a bit? I want to get a good picture to send home,"

* * *

"So I guess this is it, huh?" Zaria hefted her bag onto the shoulder not claimed by Zorua and placed a hand on Nuz's head.

"Seems like it," Vali smiled at Zaria as she took a picture of the scene.

Zaria laughed softly, "Keep taking those pictures of yours, Vali. You're pretty damn good at it."

"I will," Vali reached into her pocket, "Oh, take this,"

"A photo?" Zaria looked down at the photo she handed her, "Oh this is awesome. When did you take it?"

The photo was of Zaria with her entire team of pokemon surrounding her, "Two days ago. I figured you'd probably want a copy of it."

"Thanks, Vali," Zaria took off her bag and placed the photo inside.

"No problem," Vali replied, "Just promise me you'll be careful, I really want to meet up again and have a battle together,"

"With words like that, it sounds to me you want to become rivals," Zaria smirked at Vali.

Vali shrugged lightly, "Not really, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have a rival especially one attempting to also become a master."

Zaria held out a hand, "Rivals then?"

"Rivals," Vali took the older girl's hand, "I look forward to our next meeting,"

"Definitely," Zaria said as they shook before she pulled Vali into a light hug, "You be careful too. It'd be a shame if a friend like you ended up getting hurt somehow,"

"I'll try," Vali hugged her back and rubbed between Zorua's ears, "Hopefully the weather keeps up,"

"Yeah," Zaria pulled away and re-shouldered her bag, "See you!"

Vali smiled as Zaria began walking away, "See you!"

"Steven, keep her out of trouble!" Zaria shouted over her shoulder as Steven walked up, "I'd hate it if my rival got into trouble because you weren't watching over her,"

Steven looked down at Vali with a raised eyebrow, "Rival?"

"Mostly Zaria's idea, but it seems like a good idea especially since we're pretty equal in skill, ya know," Vali waved as Zaria began disappearing from sight, "Just a friendly one,"

* * *

Lance departed from Vermilion city two days later. Rather than go to Celadon city, he was heading to Cinnabar and the Seafoam islands. Lance grinned as he looked at the boat that would be taking him to Cinnabar, "This will be so much, I love boat rides."

"How come you're not just riding your Dragonite or Charizard to Cinnabar?" Vali asked him curiously.

"I've never been to Cinnabar before and considering how many islands are off the coast of Kanto, it's just safer to go by boat," Lance answered as his newest Dratini settled around his shoulders, "There's also the fact that my beautiful girl here would probably prefer not being in her pokeball during our first trip to the ocean together,"

"Well, good luck and safe travels," Steven said earning a nod.

Lance boarded his boat and waved as it began to move away from the port.

* * *

Vali stopped by the post office to pick up the package Professor Oak sent her and ended up finding out that Delia had sent something as well. Once she returned to the pokemon center, she opened up Professor Oak's package first and found the elemental stone shards contained in various vials. When she opened Delia's package, she found a new winter jacket, some long sleeved shirts, and some thermal socks. Delia also sent along some home made snacks and other goodies that she was definitely going to be enjoying.

* * *

Vali looked at Smaug's pokedex entry and stared at it for a few second. Lance's Charizard hadn't stopped at help him learn one attack. Smaug now knew Dragon Rage, Scary Face, Fire Punch, and Iron Tail. Four new attacks to play around with, she would definitely have to pay Lance back for the tutoring he'd given Smaug. Smaug was also working on upgrading his Ember attack into a Flamethrower which was fine by her once she ensure that he had his other new ones down pat. She really shouldn't have worried since nothing helped a pokemon learn better than an older and wiser member of their species. She was also pleased to discover that he'd improved Dragon Pulse which made sense since Lance's dragon-types were there to give him advice.

Vali looked away from her pokedex and at the two pokemon that she was debating using in the gym battle, "Alright, I'm trying to decide which of you to use during the next gym battle," Smaug looked at Idril then at Vali with a confused look on his face, "Idril is a ground-type, Smaug. I know that I haven't really focused on type advantage since starting out outside of using Pikachu during my last gym battle,"

Smaug looked back at Idril and let out a soft trill. Idril blinked at him before replying with a soft chittering sound. The two conversed for a little while before Smaug nodded and stepped forward pointing a clawed thumb to himself. Vali understood what he was saying, "You're going to battle?" Smaug nodded and she looked at Idril, "Are you sure you don't want to?" Idril bobbed her head letting out a soft chitter, "I suppose its because you don't think you've got enough experience just yet, right?" Idril nodded again, "We'll work on it, but I suppose asking you to battle in a gym is a bit too much to ask especially since Lt. Surge's pokemon are really strong."

If Idril didn't think she was ready, Vali wasn't about to force her into doing something like this. It took a lot for a pokemon to face a gym leader's pokemon especially when it was one of Lt. Surge's pokemon.

* * *

After a small debate, Vali ended up facing Lt. Surge first. Lt. Surge grinned as they stood across from one another in his gym, "Think you're ready to face me, Brat?"

"Pretty much," Vali shrugged lightly as she palmed Pikachu's pokeball.

"Then let's start," Lt. Surge replied.

The referee called out, "This is a gym battle between gym leader Lt. Surge of Vermilion City and challenger Valkyrie Potter of Pallet Town! Trainers release your pokemon!"

Lt. Surge called out a Pikachu and Vali called out, "Come out and battle with my, my friend!"

Pikachu shook himself lightly before giving his opponent a small glare. Lt. Surge let out a loud laugh, "Guess we had the same idea in mind. Chu, show them your shock value!"

Lt. Surge's Pikachu, Chu, released a powerful Thunderbolt. Pikachu immediately used Double Team and Quick Attack to dodge the attack before Pikachu retaliated with a Thunder Shock before using Play Nice which earned a chuckle from Lt. Surge. The battle continued along a similar vein with Pikachu spamming Double Team to prevent any of Chu's attacks from actually hitting him. Let it be said that Double Team was an annoying move to go up against, it was fun to use if only to see how irritated the opposing pokemon got. Eventually, Chu got so annoyed that he released a Thunder that got rid of the clones, but did little to Pikachu since he was underground. Vali spoke as Pikachu slammed an Iron Tail into Chu and sent the other Pikachu flying, "Pikachu, keep on the pressure."

"You're a tricky opponent, Brat," Lt. Surge chuckled as Chu was sent flying again by a Quick Attack fueled Iron Tail that had to have hurt, "I prefer opponents that fight straight up, but even I have to admit that opponents like you make battles like this fun,"

Vali nodded as Pikachu Thunder Punched Chu's chin, "Thanks. After the battles over, would you mind giving me some insight into training Raichu? Pikachu wants to evolve once he's reached his limit."

"Sure thing," Lt. Surge nodded before shouting, "Chu, don't let him trash you around! Smack him away with Iron Tail!"

"Pikachu, Thunderbolt to the tail!" Vali countered with a slight grin.

Even Lt. Surge had to wince when Chu's steel-type covered tail was hit by the powerful electrical attack, Chu was mercifully knocked out just before the worst of the voltage hit him. While Pikachu were some of the most durable when it came to electric-type attacks, they couldn't take everything especially not when it was amplified. Fighting electric-types with a steel-type move especially if it's one that involves a part of the body taking on steel-type properties was not smart unless you slammed that body part into the ground thus allowing the electrical current to disperse into the earth.

Lt. Surge returned Chu with a shake of his head, "Not the smartest idea, huh."

"Even Gym Leaders make dumb mistakes sometimes," Vali shrugged lightly, "It's all a part of being human," She looked at Pikachu, "Want to take a break?"

Pikachu thought about it before nodding. Vali returned him as Lt. Surge released his next pokemon, a Magneton. She was relieved that the man hadn't saw fit to use a Voltorb or Electrode since she hadn't really had much experience with a pokemon that willingly blew itself up if it got pissed off enough. She released Smaug after a moment of thought since she really didn't want to see if Lt. Surge would use Supersonic. Smaug spat an Ember towards the ground as he took in the trio of floating magnets before giving her a look asking why he was up against such a pokemon. She shrugged as Lt. Surge commented, "No Puppy?"

"I'd rather save his ears considering the fact that Magnemite and Magneton know Supersonic," Vali wasn't going to put Balto through that if she didn't have to, "Smaug, let's start off with Ember,"

Smaug began spitting Embers at Magneton who dodged them almost lazily making the fire-lizard's eyes narrow. Lt. Surge called out, "Magneton, use Thunder Shock."

"Metal Claw into the ground," Vali countered almost immediately as Smaug's claws took on a silver sheen.

Smaug slammed his claws into the ground and grit his teeth as the Thunder Shock hit him. While she may have been training her pokemon to resist electrical attacks, it didn't change the fact that live electricity hurt like hell even if it was being channeled into the ground. Smaug released a huge cloud of Smokescreen after the Thunder Shock stopped and began doing his best to show Magneton his displeasure. Lt. Surge let out a whistle, "Not a bad tactic especially since most don't bother with Smokescreen considering the fact it doesn't do much."

"It provides a perfect cover that attacks like Smog can't provide since it doesn't poison the user if they're not a poison-type," Vali replied with a smile, "Just because it doesn't do much by itself, it doesn't make it any less viable a tactic if someone is willing to do their best to work out how to use it effectively. It's more of a lack of trying than anything else,"

"Not bad especially since most wouldn't have a way to get rid of the smoke especially since your Charmeleon is constantly adding more smoke," Lt. Surge looked pleased at the notion, "Not bad at all, but let's see how you deal with this. Magneton, use Shock Wave!"

Mentally cursing as she hadn't taught Smaug Dig, she called out, "Smaug, Metal Claw into the ground."

Hopefully, he wouldn't be badly paralyzed. Smaug let out an audible grunt, but continued to release clouds of smoke into the air as he attacked Magneton. When the clouds began to clear, Smaug became visible as electricity ran across his scales. Across from him, Magneton floated low against the ground looking more than a little pained. Lt. Surge called out, "Magneton, Zap Cannon. End this battle."

As Magneton began forming a glowing ball of electricity between it's magnets, Vali called out, "Smaug, try your best to move out of the way or disrupt the attack!"

Smaug gritted his teeth before jerkily rearing back his head as an aura of energy formed within his maw. As Magneton released a beam of electrical energy, Smaug threw his head forward releasing a dragon-like energy construct that clashed with Magneton's Zap Cannon. The two energies clashed for awhile before exploding sending both pokemon flying back from the force. Vali pulled on her goggles which she probably should have done earlier. When the dust settled, Magneton was unconscious on the ground while Smaug was pushing himself up with a deep growl. Lt. Surge let out a roar of laughter as he returned Magneton, "Not bad, Brat. Not bad at all, but don't get cocky. You still have to face Raichu."

Vali looked at Smaug, "Smaug, do you want to take a break?"

Smaug shook his head with a low growl and glared at the Raichu that Lt. Surge released onto the field. So he wanted to do some damage before either fainting or she pulled him back, Vali supposed that was alright, but she would definitely be watching him carefully. Lt. Surge grinned, "I like your pokemon's attitude. The Charizard-line have always been my favorite fire-types if only because the assholes hate giving up. Raichu, let's show em what their dealing with. Thunder."

"Smaug, Dragon Rage!" Vali called out in return.

Smaug released the powerful dragon-type flamethrower that was still potent despite him not being a dragon-type. Raichu mostly dodged it as the Thunder slammed into Smaug and cut off the attack. Despite taking the attack, Smaug was still conscious though one more good hit and he'd be out. Lt. Surge whistled, "Not bad considering the fact Magneton probably got in a few good hit."

"Smaug, return," Vali returned him, "You did a good job, that's enough for now," She grabbed Balto's pokeball, "Come out and battle with me, my friend!" Balto appeared and eyed Raichu carefully, "Raichu's our last opponent, Balto. Let's start off with Hide and Go Seek!"

Balto nodded and dug into the battlefield. Raichu's eyes narrowed and it's ears twitched clearly attempting to track Balto's movements. When Balto appeared behind it with his fangs glowing with fire fang, it lashed out with an electricity covered fist. Balto still managed to latch onto Raichu despite the first to his gut, but clearly that had to of hurt. Balto jumped off while spitting Embers at Raichu before diving back into his hole. Lt. Surge shook his head, "I admit that while I saw you use that trick in the tournament, I'm still a bit surprised by it though didn't he use Iron Tail?"

"Considering the fact that your Pikachu ended up getting the shit shocked out of him by mine when he used Iron Tail, what do you think?" Vali asked earning a snort, "Balto knows to avoid using Iron Tail unless he absolutely has to. He knows how bad it hurts to get hit by an electric-type move when using Iron Tail,"

"Figured I might as well ask," Lt. Surge shook his head, "You and your pokemon aren't that bad though I'm surprised you didn't use that Sandshrew of yours,"

"I gave her the chance, but she decided she wasn't ready. Instead of trying to force her into battling when she isn't ready, I chose to use one of my pokemon that was," Vali shrugged lightly, "Besides, type advantage isn't everything. I actually beat Pewter with Smaug and Balto,"

Lt. Surge looked surprised, "Seriously?"

"Mhmm," Vali grinned lightly, "My godfather owes my a Houndour egg too since I beat the gym with two fire-types,"

Lt. Surge shook his head, "What's next, a kid beating that gym with a damn Pikachu?"

Vali shrugged though she had an odd feeling that Lt. Surge's prediction might end up coming true. While the two trainers talked, Balto and Raichu were going at it. Raichu had managed to get in a few Thunder Punches and an Iron tail. Balto had continued using Fire Fang and Ember though clearly he was beginning to lag a bit. Vali called out, "Morning Sun, Balto!"

Balto barked and his fur gained a golden glow prompting Lt. Surge to ask, "One of Professor Oak's pups?"

"Yup," Vali grinned at seeing Balto looking a lot better, "Balto let's show off your speed training,"

Balto yipped in reply and ran towards Raichu. He used Flame Wheel causing him to careen towards the mouse pokemon at a high speed. Raichu got out of the way, but Balto managed to redirect himself. All that training towards being able to aim had really paid off. Raichu cried out as the flame covered pooch slammed into it sending them skidding. Balto used Reversal which while it wasn't as powerful as it could be if he hadn't used Morning Sun, it still did damage. Raichu slammed a Thunder Punch into Balto's gut again once he recovered from the attack. Balto retaliated with a Fire Fang which latched onto the mouse pokemon's arm. The two broke apart as Raichu attempted to use Thunder Punch on Balto again. They panted harshly looking at one another in determination before racing forward again. Lt. Surge grinned, "Not a bad pup, but he'll have to do better than that. Raichu, Focus Punch."

Raichu grinned as its eyes narrowed and its fist began to take on a light blue glow. Vali called out, "Balto hit it with Ember before it can hit you and quick! You need to disrupt it before it manages to hit you."

Balto nodded and began spitting Embers towards Raichu. Raichu took the attack with a grimace as the energy around its fist began to waver before strengthening. Raichu darted forward and threw its fist as Balto used Iron Tail for the first time today. The two attacks clashed causing sparks to fly before Balto's attack lost sending him flying. Balto landed harshly and slowly pushed himself to his feet wincing. Balto shook his head with a low growl and took off running towards Raichu using Flame Wheel. Raichu dodged against and charged up another Focus Punch. The attacks clashed once again only this time it sent both pokemon flying with an explosion. When the dust cleared, they were both barely conscious as they forced themselves to stand up. Eventually, they both fell forward into the ground unconscious. The referee called out, "It's a tie! As challenger Valkyrie has two still conscious, she is the victor!"

Vali nodded as she returned Balto, "You did a good job, Balto. Take it easy now."

Balto's ball warmed within her fingers before returning to its usual state. Vali met up with Lt. Surge and they shook hands with the man grinning, "Not bad, Brat. I honestly thought Raichu would've beat your Growlithe."

"Balto's about five years old," Vali replied earning a raised eyebrow, "He's stronger than most would think,"

Lt. Surge handed her the Thunder Badge, "Here's your badge."

"Thank you," Vali looked down at the badge with a slight grin.

"Come back again once you've got all your badges so we can battle without the kid gloves on," Lt. Surge told her earning a nod.

Vali added her newest badge to its place in her badge case before moving to sit down in the stands to watch Steven battle Lt. Surge. Lt. Surge ended up using an Electrode, a Jolteon, and another Raichu though this one was clearly older than the one she'd faced. Steven did fairly well and Vali got to see Lileep in action for the first time. Lileep took on Electrode and while he ended up tying with Electrode when the pokeball-like pokemon used Self-destruct, he did a really good idea. Steven ended up Claydol for his pokemon again Jolteon and Raichu. The last two battles were quite frankly amazing and she vowed to watch the videos of the tournament fights if only to see Steven's battle against Lance since it was bound to be amazing.

* * *

On their way to the pokemon center, Steven said, "That was a fun battle."

"Yeah, I'm really glad that Idril decided not to battle this time," Lt. Surge was brutal against ground-types.

Steven nodded as he thought about the damage Claydol had ended up with, "That was definitely a good idea, Claydol's going to require at least a day in the Pokemon Center if not a little bit longer to mostly recover. That Raichu of Lt. Surge's had a wicked Iron Tail."

Vali's eagerness to get Lt. Surge's advice on how to raise a Raichu once Pikachu evolved had only increased after watching that battle especially since he had an even stronger Raichu on his real team. If she could Pikachu even half as strong as that Raichu, he'd be golden though she was going to try and raise him up even stronger than that.

* * *

Vali and Steven ended up staying in Vermilion for an extra week once their gym battles were over. Firstly to allow their pokemon to recover from said battles and to allow her to pick Lt. Surge's brain on the Pichu-line. Secondly to properly plan out their route to Celadon. Thirdly to let a rather violent storm pass. With that storm, fall had officially started in the Kanto region as everyone knew fall was storm season at least along the coast. Once the storm passed and everything was ready, they began making their way to Celadon city which would take around two and a half weeks.

They wouldn't be staying in Saffron longer than to have their pokemon checked over, take showers, and resupply themselves. No offense to Sabrina, but neither of them wanted to be in that city until they had to be.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997: Chapter nine is here and it has a lot going on in it. Not much battling going on, but I prefer it this way. Celadon with be finished next chapter. I might have gotten a job, so don't expect me to be able to update more than once a month which will happen around the 20th each month. If I manage to write more often, good, but don't expect two updates a month anymore. As always, I will update the list on my profile within two days of this being posted to allow everyone to absorb the information.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Twister60 : Thanks. I was stumped on how to write him for a little while since there are so many good and bad ways to do it. I'm glad you like my version of him.**

 **MaddoxLynn : I'm glad you like it. I know that story and it really is a shame that it's been discontinued since it was entertaining. Don't worry, I won't burn myself out. I'm going to take things one day at a time.**

 **frankieu : I'm glad you liked it. I don't really have a plan for if it has an effect especially since its highly unlikely we'll be seeing that particular ninetales again. No more shinnies at the moment I'm afraid.**

 **kfawcett1998 : I'm so glad you like it.**

 **Jostanos : Nice Omake! **

**greenespeon1995 : Yes, she is. Yup!**

 **vxgt : I'm glad you liked it. Yeah. Some of them do in my world that I'm writing here. I've been wanting to introduce the Vulpix for awhile, but the egg won't be hatching for a few chapters.**

 **RHatch89 : I'm glad you liked it.**

 **Tejerina : I know. I'm kind of setting Surge up just for joke. It makes me feel a bit bad, ya know.**

 **comodo50 : Yeah, it will take a little while for Vali to actually like Sabrina after what happened. It's still awhile away though I'll be dropping hints from time to time. I know and sometimes it makes me wish they would make a pokemon show for the 'adults'. Yup! I know, it made me crack up a bit just writing that part. A bit of both though more the former than the latter. Maybe, maybe not. An interesting proposal that might end up in the Omake files I'm planning to write at some point. **

**xirons20 : No problem, I'm happy to clear things up when I can. I gave Lance a Dratini, so I had to give her a diffrent hard to come by pokemon too just to be fair. I'm glad you think so. I think it makes the story just a bit better when I fit them in. Thank you very much.**

 **darkworkangel : Thank you.**

 **laraferreira : Yeah.**

 **ThunderClaw03 : *Stares at review then at you with a raised eyebrow* Thunder, are you a sadist? Not that it's a bad thing because I can be one sometimes, but a majority of your reviews involve someone, usually a male, or something in a lot of pain...**

 **LazyKid24 : Two reivews:**

 **Reivew 1: Pretty much though not the ACE of her team. You'll have to see though I don't plan on giving her a Horsea since a lot of fics have them in it. She will be getting something that eventually turns into a dragon though.**

 **Review 2:** **Yeah, not going to happen simply because I don't know how I can make that work especially with everything I have planned.**

 **AnonChan1 : WOOHOO! Long reviews rock and you even got it all sections and stuff *Gives Virtual hug*. I'm glad you decided to review. I laughed a lot at some of it and really enjoyed reading it. Thanks. Feel free to drop a review or PM anytime if you have questions.**

 **Elfu : *Wiggles eyebrows* Maaayyybbbeeee. Mhmm. We'll just have to see though I will say it isn't anywhere close to love yet since they're only 10 and 14 respectively. I know and it makes me want to scream since it deserves more!**

 **Sn : It's a very scary thought indeed which is why I had to put it in. **

**nikkali44 : I'm glad to hear it.**

 **Lady Kaiki: Yeah.**

 **NotRob : I'm glad.**

 **TiffBaby101 : I'm glad you like it.**

 **DarthLeo : Glad you like it, but what's the first just out of curiosity. Yeah there will be errors since I don't have a beta and I'm the one doing my own last minute checking, ya know. Thank you.**

 **fallondyson : Yeah.**

* * *

 **Words: 19,502**

* * *

Chapter 9

* * *

Vali hummed as they walked back through the steadily recovering route 6, "I doubt we'll see any real signs of the wild fire by this time next year."

"Is it diffrent from your old world?" Steven asked as they passed one of the new ponds that had Poliwag playing around it, "Besides not having pokemon,"

The Poliwag made gurgling sounds and rushed over to Vali. She bent down to rub their damp rubbery heads as Balto nosed them. They had been some of the pokemon she'd rescued from the wild fire and clearly they remember her. She pushed them back towards the Poliwhirl watching from inside the pond after a few moments. They did so with a bit of reluctance much to her amusement. She snapped a picture of the Poliwag and Poliwhirl before they resumed walking again, "Quite a bit since we didn't have pokemon to help with the recovery efforts. It didn't take just a few weeks for things to return to almost normal like it does here. I can't say how my old people would have recovered since the region I lived in was fairly wet."

"I can't really imagine a world like the one you came from," Steven admitted as they began walking up a small hill, "A world without pokemon..."

"It's a dreary place compared to this one even if there were parts of it that weren't quite so bad," Vali thought back to her time in England both inside the magical world and the normal one, "I think the only thing I really miss are my old friends and access to books on magic. Sometimes, I wish I could send a letter telling them what happened or a note saying that I'm okay. They deserve that at the very least for sticking beside me during all that crap during school and the fact that they could have been bitten by a werewolf,"

Steven offered her a sympathetic look before pausing, "Have you tried calling on the phoenix, Fawkes?"

Vali nodded with a soft sigh, "During the spring of our first year here, Sirius and I both tried to call on him. We tried for over a month, but nothing worked. It either means we're too far for him to hear us or something in this world is preventing him from hearing us," She glanced at Steven, "We'll eventually try again, but neither of us wants to actually return. This place is a lot better than our old one."

If given the chance to return, Vali wouldn't take it unless she could come back home afterward. She would never abandon her family, her pokemon, or the friends she's gained since coming here. None of it was easily replaced just like she would never be able to replace her old friends. While she may miss things back in her old world, she had a new home now and would never willingly leave it without a guaranteed way back. Even then, she doubted she would actually return. Like she'd told Ron and Hermione so many times, the fame, money, and power that came with her title were things she'd give up if it meant she had her parents back. While she might not have Lily and James Potter, she had Sirius Black, Delia Ketchum, Ash Ketchum, Professor Oak, Gary Oak, Daisy Oak, and her pokemon which was enough for her.

* * *

After two days of travel, Vali and Steven changed things up a bit. To speed up their travels a bit and give their pokemon a bit more exercise, they would be riding Arwen and Skarmory. Balto and Pikachu would be running with Arwen since they would be the only ones able to keep up. Depending on how quickly they traveled, they would switch between walking and riding their pokemon. During the times they walked, their slower pokemon would be walking alongside them to build up their stamina.

Pikachu was severely frustrated and tired by the time she ended up returning him while Balto greatly enjoyed the run while managing to keep up with Arwen for the most part. Arwen loved the run as much as Balto if not more despite not going at her fastest. Vali was grateful to Ranger Mor for showing her the best way to ride a Ponyta bareback since the soreness in her thighs and on her butt would probably be a lot worse. Using a saddle blanket she picked up from the Pokemart, the soreness wasn't so bad though she had trouble walking a bit in the morning and after she finished riding for the day.

Eevee chose to sit on her shoulder during the ride and seemed to enjoy seeing everything up high. Vali spoke to him as Arwen maneuvered through Route 6. It was mostly about what she'd seen during the fire or the things they were passing by. Sometimes, she talked about her old world and told him pretty much everything during the times that Steven had Skarmory fly up high to scout the path ahead of them. It was easier to talk about it with Eevee since he'd gone through pretty much the same thing only he didn't have the magical world to get away from the abuse. If Steven was aware of these talks and she was pretty sure Metagross told him, he didn't say anything.

Vali admitted that talking about her abuse to Eevee helped especially since he wouldn't judge her. It eased some of the pain her memories caused and lessened the impact of her nightmares. She thought that the talks helped Eevee as well since he seemed even less cold to her pokemon and actually ate with them. He didn't actively join in their antics, but he seemed to actually enjoy being around them. He still didn't exactly like Steven, but he was more tolerable to the icy blue haired trainer. While he wasn't even close to being over his abuse, he was on his way to recovering just like her.

* * *

Saffron City was much like how Vali remembered it though this time she didn't have a massive headache caused by an overly eager psychic. She didn't like the city very much and probably never would. She was quick to return Balto alongside Arwen before doing the same to Eevee seeing as the crowds were setting him on edge. She released Smaug while keeping her other pokemon in their pokeballs seeing as none of them would've liked the city that much or would have drawn too much attention i.e Idril. Steven followed her example by having just Squirtle out. While he could have his Sandshrew out, Sandshrew were not city pokemon nor did they enjoy the environment. They made their way to the pokemon center to have their pokemon and Vali's egg checked out. They got rooms for a night before taking showers and starting their laundry.

Once they were cleaned up, they went over their supplies after getting rid of all the trash that had accumulated. Vali noted that she would need to get more berries and some extra vitamins since she was starting to run low. Thankfully, she had another two months before berry prices went up with winter coming. If she was lucky, she'd probably be able to buy the berries in bulk at the department store in Celadon before the prices became too much. Unlike what most newbie trainers did the first time they got prize money, she was going to be very careful with her money. The first thing she had done the moment she could was put a majority of the money in her bank account. Half of that money then went into her savings account where it would stay until a rainy day, the rest would sit in her account until she needed it. Upon reaching Celadon, she would probably use a chunk of that money to buy herself winter clothes and other stuff she'd need for the winter.

Shopping and lugging everything back to the pokemon center was thankfully easy since the Pokemart was close to it. Since none of their pokemon had any real battle damage from the few battles they'd had during the trip to Saffron, they were returned within four hours. Vali's egg wasn't close to hatching which she had expected and it was in very good health. The Nurse Joy on duty had actually complimented Vali on how well she's taken care of the egg and offered some advice on what to do to ensure the egg stayed this healthy. Nurse Joy also gave her some books on raising baby pokemon and one on raising a baby Vulpix once she told the woman what pokemon had given her the egg.

* * *

After making sure they had all their supplies, they managed to leave Saffron city a little after ten. It was surprising that Sabrina didn't try to contact them, but Vali supposed that the psychic could tell neither of them wanted to see her just yet. Given that Celadon was close to Saffron, they didn't need to pack as much food or supplies. It would only take them three days to get to Celadon by walking and even less by riding. Steven and Vali decided that unless they encountered any trainers on the way to Celadon, they would ride most of the way.

* * *

Route 7 was one of the more scenic routes mostly due to the rather green scenery and how docile most of the pokemon were. Many trainers flocked to the area in hopes of catching a Growlithe or Vulpix though there were rarely any successful captures. Arcanine and Ninetales were more frequently seen in this area for some reason though no one had been able to figure out why. A common theory was that the ground had large deposits of Fire Stones. It didn't make much sense since Fire Stones were mostly found around areas with volcanoes or members of the Magmar line. Despite that fact, there were many attempts to get permits to dig and excavate the area which were met with heavy opposition. As one of the few areas in Kanto where the Growlithe and Vulpix-lines could be found in the wild, it was considered a protected area.

If it weren't for the fact that attempting to create another pathway between Celadon and Saffron was practically impossible due to how territorial the various pokemon in the area were, Route 7 might've become a true protected area where catching pokemon wasn't allowed and you would have to have special permits to get inside of it. Still, you had to have at least three gym badges or the approval of the League to travel Route 7. Because of that, you rarely found other trainers passing through unless it was getting close to the League Conference.

Vali ended up taking quite a few pictures and even got to play with some wild Growlithe pups under the watchful eye of their Arcanine pack mother. Arcanine and Growlithe packs usually had a mated pair of Arcanine with up to six pups. Usually two of the pups were older Growlithe that hadn't left their parents yet for whatever reason. Arcanine usually had a litter of three to four pups with a rare sixth. While the pack mother watched over the offspring with the help of the old pups, the alpha male went hunting or checking their territory for any outsiders. Unlike most wild pokemon, Arcanine and Growlithe were fairly friendly unless you tried to catch them then you were pretty much toast.

Balto enjoyed spending time with some of his kin and was a bit reluctant to leave since it had been awhile since he'd gotten to spend time with other Growlithe. Smaug enjoyed the visit if only because he got to fight the alpha male of the pack. He was out-classed, but not to the point of the Elder Rapidash. All her other pokemon liked the small break especially Idril and Terra as it allowed them to play with pokemon their own age. Terra had to learn how to keep from hurting the Growlithe pups, but enjoyed it none the less. Pikachu fretted a bit when the play fights got a bit rough showing off his mother hen side which cracked Vali up a bit. Even Eevee had some fun, he seemed a bit shocked when the pups invited him to play before joining in.

Steven ended up taking a picture of Vali under a dog pile of her pokemon and the Growlithe pups much to her mock annoyance. She knew everyone back home in Pallet would love the picture, so she couldn't be too mad about it. She knew Delia liked having pictures of her smiling and acting her physical age. When it came time to move on, Balto wasn't the only one sad to leave, but they had a journey to continue.

* * *

Celadon city was one of the largest in Kanto mostly because of the Celadon Department Store where you could find practically anything for sale. It was also known as the Gambling city of Kanto. Sirius likened it to Las Vegas without the strip since you could find casinos, strip clubs, bars, gaming areas, theaters, and things like that all over the city. Granted, you weren't likely to find a prostitute walking around since there were laws in place, but if you were looking for one, you only needed to find the red light district filled with the darker side of humanity. While the League mostly kept it in check, they couldn't snuff it out especially since many of the politicians ended up there for one reason or another.

Despite the fact fall was gaining its stride, Celadon still held close the final visages of summer. It was warm enough that you could still walk around in shorts and a t-shirt if you so desired. The flowers were still in bloom and grass-type pokemon could be see running around in the various green areas. People walked around with smiles and laughs as they went about their day. The city wasn't as crowded as Saffron, but that was probably due to the fact it was bigger than the other city due to all the attractions it boasted.

Steven looked around as they walked towards the pokemon center, "I think I like this place better."

"Mhmm," Vali hummed softly as they passed by an area where a group of Bellossom were dancing for the entertainment of those around them, "Celadon is a nice city despite being the Gambling city of Kanto,"

"Seriously?" Steven's head shot towards her so fast she was afraid he might've gotten whiplash.

Vali nodded as she pointed out of the casinos, "There are tons of casinos and all that stuff here. If it weren't for the fact prostitution is limited to the red light district, you would probably be able to see it better."

"They didn't mention that before I came to Kanto," Steven muttered softly.

"They didn't mention a lot of things before you came to Kanto," Vali giggled at the look on his face, "Think about it this way, every city in each region needs a draw to it especially if it has a gym. Celadon is just one of those that decided to be a party city for the most part,"

"Are there any other cities like this in Kanto?" Steven asked as they drew closer to the Pokemon center.

Vali nodded after a moment of thought, "Fuchsia though most of its geisha girls and Hosts then again, you can find Host clubs in almost every city if you look hard enough."

"And you know this how?" Steven asked as they reached the pokemon center and made their way inside.

"Sirius and the fact that the League officials are kind of hoping more people like us come along," Vali's tone was dry as she said that, "That and the Rangers that work in Kanto don't really care about keeping that kind of stuff secret especially when you're like me,"

Steven looked a bit horrified which made her smile a bit. While the League wasn't seriously pushing for it, they wanted more magic users if only to make it so they had a leg up in protecting Kanto if a crisis were to happen. Thankfully, the ones in charge weren't the kind of people to force the issue. Of course, they were well aware that Vali and Sirius could leave if they so wished which made it hard to seriously push for something like that. Although the League wanted more magic users, they were not willing to lose the only two they had access to because of their greed. There was also the fact that Sirius ensured that the League knew what an Obscurial was, abuse was the biggest reason one was created, but it wasn't the only one. If a young magical was pressured enough for whatever reason, they would suppress their magic in hopes of getting rid of the pressure thus becoming an Obscurial when it all became too much. With that in mind, the League really wasn't stupid enough to try anything.

"Welcome to the Celadon City Pokemon center," The Nurse Joy on duty smiled warmly at them, "What can I do for you?"

"We'd like to have our pokemon checked over and I would like my egg checked over," Vali said prompting the Joy to pull out two trays, "I have an Eevee that I rescued from a bad situation. Professor Oak recommended that I have him checked out at every Pokemon center to ensure he doesn't have a backslide,"

"Of course," Nurse Joy nodded seriously as Vali returned Balto, "Anything else?"

"Two rooms," Steven answered as he took out his pokeballs.

Nurse Joy nodded as they both handed her their pokedex and she went to grab their room keys. Vali glanced at him, "You okay?"

Steven nodded with a grimace, "Yeah just didn't expect you to say something like that."

Vali snickered with a slight grin, "Think about it this way, the government can be crazy sometimes, but at least they aren't forcing the issue."

Otherwise, Sirius would probably be married already and Vali wouldn't be allowed to go on her journey for fear that she might end up dying for some reason. Nurse Joy handed them their keys as Vali took out her incubator, "Here you are, I hope you enjoy your stay in Celadon City."

Vali glanced around the pokemon center as they headed towards the trainer rooms. It was the biggest she'd seen so far, but given just what kind of city this was, it was to be expected. She hoped that she could find those tournaments and stuff that one of the rangers that had been a trainer when they were younger talked about. They were a nice source of money and experience especially if you were a good trainer. Some of them even offered pokemon as prizes though Vali wasn't too sure which ones were legal which meant she'd been checking the notice board as soon as possible.

* * *

Sometimes, Steven had trouble believing how his life had gone since he'd met Valkyrie 'Vali' Rosebud Potter. His journey through Hoenn and the training he'd done in order to reach his current level hadn't been nearly so surprising or odd. If he'd been told about how his journey in Kanto had gone so far before going on said journey, he wouldn't have believed it was possible. Saving an abused pokemon and catching a shiny pokemon weren't that odd, he had his own shiny Metagross after all. Getting along with the various gym leaders save for Sabrina wasn't that odd, he had his own thoughts and feelings about the gym leaders he'd encountered. Meeting powerful wild pokemon wasn't exactly normal, it still happened sometimes. Meeting a girl who had magic and an inner flame like a fire-type pokemon, it wasn't normal at all.

Steven didn't regret meeting Vali. He doubted that he ever would regret meeting and agreeing to travel with her. He might've never found out that Sandshrew could scent out evolutionary stones or other valuable stones if the notes Professor Oak had given them were telling the truth. He wouldn't have enjoyed his journey through Kanto as much nor have learned as much as he did. Sure, he could have done without her visions and seeing how badly they effected her. Vali was that one of the kind person that you just couldn't let go of when you met them. Out of all the traveling companions he could have had, she was perhaps the best one for him. After all, she made life interesting.

Taking a deep breath, Steven tried to ignore the slight headache building up, "You want to participate in tournaments that are of questionable legality because..."

"They're good experience and the money isn't too bad either," Vali offered him a sheepish smile.

That was another thing Steven liked about Vali, she didn't abuse the fact that he was rich and had a lot of money. She preferred to do things on her own unless they involved hiring a guide like through Mount Moon which he had insisted on. At the very least, she didn't run through all the money she earned like some newbie trainers had a habit of doing and she put her pokemon first too though not to the point where her health suffered. Looking at her hopeful expression, he knew that she really wanted to do this and it wasn't like it was a bad idea though he really didn't want to think about what would happen if the tournaments were illegal. Sighing, he suggested, "Let's ask Nurse Joy about the legal tournaments being put on now."

Vali grinned brightly and hugged Steven, "Thank you, Steven!"

Seeing her so happy made agreeing to stuff like that worth it, Steven admitted as he returned the hug.

* * *

Nurse Joy looked a bit amused by Vali's questions about the tournaments currently going on, "There is the Fire Vs Grass tournament, but the deadline to participate was two hours ago."

Vali groaned softly, "Dang it."

"There are a few other tournaments going on, I can give you a list and their location if you'd like," Nurse Joy offered causing Vali to perk up and nodded enthusiastically, "I'll be right back,"

Vali heard a laugh and turned her head to find Zaria, "Zaria!"

"Hey, Vali," Zaria greeted her with a slight grin while Zorua barked in greeting, "I was wondering when you two would show up. When did you arrive?"

"Three hours ago give or take a few minutes," Vali was glad to see the girl, "How have you been?"

"Not bad especially since I'm participating in the Fire Vs Grass tournament," Zaria answered making Vali groan, "Didn't have a chance to sign up for it?"

Vali nodded with a sigh, "I actually forgot it was going to happen since no ones said anything about it since I met that girl in Cerulean."

Zaria offered her a sympathetic smile, "It's too bad. I was actually hoping to battle you in the tournament, but I'll just have to settle for a few battles outside of it," Zaria looked around, "So where's Steven?"

"He went to get something to drink from one of the cafeterias," Vali smiled when Nurse Joy returned with the list, "Thanks, Nurse Joy,"

"It's no problem," Nurse Joy handed her the list, "Good luck,"

Vali and Zaria moved over to the waiting area to catch up while they waited for Steven to return. Zaria took the list and looked it over, "Man, I'm definitely going to have to sign up for some of these."

"They're good experience and the money is definitely going to be decent," Vali took back the list, "I want to make sure I get some decent TMs while still having money in the bank not to mention winter clothes and other supplies,"

"Didn't you get 10,000 poke as prize money from that tournament?" Zaria asked earning a nod, "Did you already spend it all or something?"

Vali shook her head, "I haven't spent any of it. I'm saving up half of it for a rainy day."

Zaria actually looked a bit surprised, "That's a smart idea."

"I also sent my evolutionary items home to prevent accidental evolution or theft," Vali was going to be working on some serious theft prevention magic when she had a chance.

Sometimes, Vali wished she had gone for Ancient Runes rather than Divination. It would've been smarter especially since they didn't require much magic to work which was perfect in a situation like this. She regretted joining Ron in Divination despite her interest in the Runes, but she'd been interested in Divination as well. Divining the future had been interesting up until Trelawney started predicting her death and burning way too much incense. She wasn't the only one regretting not taking Ancient Runes. Sirius hadn't taken Ancient Runes either and had cursed up a storm when he realized just how helpful they would've been in this world.

* * *

Once Steven joined them, they ended up going to get some food while talking about everything that happened since they last saw each other. Zaria had been in Celadon for about a week and a half now. She had managed to catch a Murkrow due to the flying-type migrations going on due to the fact winter was coming though a majority of the migrations wouldn't happen for a few weeks seeing as fall had just started. So far, Zaria had a Zorua, a Sneasel, a Nuzleaf, a Poochyena, and now a Murkrow. Vali wondered where Zaria got a majority of her team since Zorua were native to Unova, Sneasel were native to Johto, Nuzleaf and Poochyena were native to Hoenn. When she commented on it, Zaria had laughed softly and explained, "Zorua's been with me since I was ten. He's the offspring of my dad's Zoroark Minnie. My uncle gave me Sneasel's egg as a gift for getting my trainers license. I got Nuzz and Bones during a visit to Hoenn while waiting for my mom's guard to come down enough for me to escape to Kanto."

"That explains a lot though how did you get to Kanto without your mom finding out?" Vali asked her curiously, "Even with your dad's help, I would've thought she'd come after you,"

"Uncle John owns a transport business and didn't mind me hoping on a ship to Kanto so long as I agreed to keep it safe from anyone trying to fuck with it," Zaria explained with a slight grin, "He's also doesn't like my mom very much, so any chance to piss her off is something he'll end up joining in with. It's been that way since they were kids and only increased when my mom wouldn't let me go on my journey three years ago,"

"Were they rivals or something?" Steven asked as he set down his glass.

Zaria snorted with a shake of her head, "Uncle John, my mom, and my dad grew up together. While Dad and Uncle John became trainers when they turned ten, Mom stayed in school and became one of the Range Union Researchers."

Vali whistled in appreciation earning a tense smirk from Zaria. Anyone could become a researcher if they had the brains and ability to register information. Becoming a member of the Ranger Union Researchers was a whole other kettle of fish. You had to not only manage to reach Ranger status, but you had to be on another level when it came to intelligence. They were responsible for creating Capture Styler and other equipment that the Rangers used in their duties. They were also the best source of information when it came to myths about the legendary pokemon and ancient technologies. The fact Zaria's mother managed to do that and had time to have a kid was amazing. Grabbing her glass, she decided to move the conversation to another topic since the white haired girl was beginning to look uncomfortable, "Did you schedule your gym battle yet?"

"It's in a week and a half," Zaria looked a bit relieved at the change in conversation, "Have you been by the gym yet?"

"Not yet, we haven't had a chance to do much exploring yet," Vali looked at her curiously, "Why?"

"Try to avoid breathing too much when you first walk in," Zaria advised earning a confused look, "The new gym leader that took over, Erika Kinone, is a perfume maker and has the school she's making attached to it,"

Vali grimaced a bit while hoping that Balto would be alright, "Anything you can tell us about her?"

Zaria shook her head, "I didn't see her when I scheduled my gym battle. According to the gym trainer I scheduled my battle with, she's more focused on getting her perfume school up and running. The only time anyone really sees her in when she's scheduled to battle someone."

"Seriously?" Vali felt more than a little annoyed, "Doesn't she realize that gym leaders are supposed to be available in case they're needed for some reason?"

Zaria shrugged as she picked up her sandwich, "I don't have a clue."

"She might still be settling into her job since she did become the gym leader this year," Steven offered earning a sigh from Vali.

Vali knew she couldn't be too hard on someone she hadn't even met. Erika was still settling into her new job and probably didn't know all the rules just yet. She did have to wonder why the gym leader before Erika hadn't explained all the rules.

* * *

Zaria showed Steven and Vali to the gym which was only a block away from the pokemon center. Upon entering the gym, Vali struggled to keep her face straight from just how powerful the scent inside the front room of the gym was. The base scent was that of an a powerful Gloom that was more than ready to evolve. The rest of the scent was a mix of various other scents that created a scent far worse than the scent coming of the Gloom. A glance showed that Steven was having trouble keeping his face straight too. The Gym trainer at the desk offered them a sympathetic look, "Welcome to the Celadon Gym, my name is Ellen. What can I do for you?"

"We're here to schedule two gym battles for three weeks from now," Steven answered earning a small nod from the gym trainer as she began fiddling with her computer, "My name is Steven Stone and I'll be going first,"

"Valkyrie Potter," Vali said as the woman looked at here, "We would prefer it if we could do both battles in the same day,"

"I can schedule Mister Stone's battle for ten in the morning and yours for two in the afternoon," Ellen offered earning two nods of agreement, "If you'll let me have your pokedexs for a few moments, I'll get it set up,"

They did as asked and made their way out of the gym once everything was done. Vali gifted Zaria with a small glare as she hissed, "You could have given us a better warning about the scent."

"Sorry," Zaria offered Vali a sheepish look, "It wasn't that bad when I scheduled mine,"

Vali decided to let it go, "Did you smell how powerful that Gloom was?"

"What Gloom?" Zaria and Steven both looked at her in confusion.

Vali frowned at them, "You couldn't smell it?" They shook their heads, "Well, I was able to smell it underneath the crappy mix of scents that nearly over powered it. I'm guessing Erika uses that Gloom's scent as a base for her perfumes."

Zaria looked at her in surprise, "How could you possibly smell that?"

"I'm not really sure. I've always had a pretty good sense of smell though that's mostly from trying to differentiate between spices when I cook," Vali didn't mention she'd learned it to prevent herself from being dosed with potions.

Vali had noticed that the food given to those third year and up were dosed with some potions. She had managed to figure out that most were general health ones with a few extra nutrition ones for those that participated in Quidditch. There were also potions for pregnancy prevention and ones to ease the symptoms of a period, she didn't have to take any of those until after Halloween in third year. She always avoided eating on Valentines day since many times someone slipped love/lust/compulsion potions into the food. There was a reason she rarely ate chocolate or any sweets unless she owl ordered if from Honeydukes, the magicals around her decided it was open season on becoming the significant other of the 'Girl-Who-Lived' when she turned thirteen.

The ability also helped Vali survive the years before learning she had magic and wasn't penniless. She would admit to scavenging through garbage cans and learning how to pick pocket in order to eat. She knew very well when something was about to go bad and if it was safe to eat. It had saved her from more than one case of food poisoning. Granted, she couldn't exactly be picky when her relatives decided to lock her up in that damn cupboard for weeks on end. She was very lucky that the few poisonous berries that she'd ended up eating didn't kill her even if the symptoms caused by them sucked until she built up a tolerance to their poison.

Seeing the look on Steven's face, Vali inwardly winced knowing that he knew she wasn't saying everything. At the very least, he didn't try to push her for answers and let her come to him. It was more than her Hermione and Ron did which made it easier to get closer to him. Talking about her abuse was hard, she thanked Arceus that the icy blue haired steel-type master-in-training didn't judge her. She was thankful when Steven changed the conversation, "Have you been the department store yet, Zaria?"

"Yeah," Zaria smirked brightly, "I managed to grab their catalogue too which means that I'll be able to order things without having to go inside,"

"Do they allow pokemon inside?" Vali asked the white haired trainer.

"So long as it isn't the size of an Aggron or weighs as much as a Snorlax, they don't care," Zaria patted Zorua's head, "I would advise against letting Arwen and Smaug in there. Even if they can control their flames, the people in charge don't want accidents to happen,"

Vali was glad that she would be able to have Balto and Pikachu with her. She still didn't really like crowds, but could deal with them if she had to.

* * *

Zaria didn't mind handing over the catalogue to Vali when they returned to the pokemon center. Vali just had a little bit of trouble believing how big it was, but quickly pushed her disbelief to the side. She had the notebook she usually used to keep track of her supplies and a couple of pens at her side. She began going through the catalogue with Steven writing down things they both wanted to check out as well as how much of something she was planning to buy. She was definitely going to invest in stickers and pokeball covers to make sure she wouldn't be able to lose her pokeballs if someone managed to somehow steal them. One of the things she was going to look into was the price of engraving pokeballs since that would be a more permanent identifier. It was bound to be expensive though since the engraver would have to be extra careful since any damage to the pokeball could cause it to stop working.

Vali made a note of getting some bandannas or something like that for her pokemon. Like with the battle against Lt. Surge, people had the same species of pokemon as her and it could cause problems identifying said pokemon if something happened. She would give each of her pokemon a choice in what they would wear. In the case of Celina, she would call home and have Delia find something for her Pidgeotto to wear. Whatever they ended up choosing, it had to be able to take damage without falling apart during a battle and be able to stand up against the elements.

When Vali got to the TM section, she asked Zaria, "Did you get the permanent version or the one-shot ones?"

"Permanent since the vouchers cover it. I got a cheapest case since they aren't covered by the vouchers, but it works," Zaria gained a small look of irritation, "Hyper Beam and other TM's of that level only come in the one-shot versions. They're also not covered by the voucher,"

Vali grimaced, but understood why the League wouldn't give out vouchers covering those. They didn't want some kid giving something like an Eevee or something like that access to Hyper Beam. It would not only cause quite a bit of destruction, but also kill the pokemon attempting to learn how to use it. Certain pokemon weren't meant to use a move like that especially during their first stages. The League didn't want that kind of knowledge on their mind especially with how stupid some beginner trainers were. Sometimes, it was a wonder how many of them managed to get their license.

"Good thing I'm not looking for that kind of move until after Terra or one of my other pokemon reaches their final evolution," Vali's pokemon didn't need that kind of power at the moment.

Sure, it would be welcome if they ran into some really strong pokemon, but that didn't need it at the moment. She'd think about it closer to when the League Conference started. Even then, she doubted she would actually get the TM. Terra could learn it naturally and teach her other pokemon if she needed them to learn it. No use spending money when it wasn't needed after all.

* * *

After getting her pokemon back from Nurse Joy, Vali pampered every single one of them. When it was Eevee's turn, he freaked out at the water and she had to remove him from the bathroom in order to calm him down. It took a while for him to calm down enough that she could give him a bath, but she had to use the small kiddie pool-like thing that she used to give Smaug's scales a thorough cleaning. Clearly, Eevee's former trainer had almost drowned the poor guy which only added to her anger towards the bastard. Once Eevee realized that the water wasn't so bad and she wasn't going to drown him, he began to relax and actually enjoyed the bath a bit.

Vali gave him a few berries and took out the Flareon plush as an apology for scaring him so badly. Eevee accepted her apology though it was quite clear the event had left him shaken. She offered him as much comfort as she could along with her other pokemon. Since she knew very well that events like that would bring up bad memories, she asked Metagross to wake her up if Eevee was having a nightmare. It turned out to be a good idea since she was able to wake him up not long before it got too bad. Thanks to her forethought, Eevee was able to get back to sleep after an hour and didn't have any more nightmares that night.

Eevee was a bit more subdued than normal for a few days, but he didn't revert back to his old habits which was a relief. Vali called Professor Oak about it the next day and the aged Professor had offered her a sheepish apology. Professor Oak had meant to tell her about Eevee's reaction to water before sending him to her, but due to all the stuff going on at the lab, he'd forgotten. He was surprised that it had taken this long for the issue to come up, but was pleased with how she'd handled it. He congratulated her on how far she'd come with Eevee before they got down to what had happened since they'd last spoken.

* * *

The Celadon Department store was one of the largest buildings in Kanto and the most wide spread. It was a lot like what she'd heard about malls back in her old world were only with a wider range of items for sale. One of the biggest draws of the massive building were the discounts available for all types of trainers and even the non-trainers. Take the Lass trainer class, they had a big discount when it came to clothes. The Bug Catchers were given a discount for items related to bug-type pokemon. Fishermen/Fisherwoman were given a discount on all things fishing and water-type related. Every Trainer class had some form of discount even the general trainers that didn't have a classification like Vali, Steven, and Zaria. Until they reached Mastery-level, they were classed as general trainers. Of course, rookie trainers were given a discount on the cheaper items in hopes that they would buy in bulk as was what usually happens.

After looking at the directory, Vali headed up to the trainer clothing department with Steven and Zaria. While Zaria came from a region that had a climate much like Kanto and Johto, Steven came from the warmer region of Hoenn which was filled with jungles and the like. As a result, he didn't know exactly what type of clothes he'd need for a Kantoian winter leaving Vali and Zaria to help him out. She ended up picking up a new scarf, goggles, and thicker gloves perfect for winter weather along with the clothes she wanted to get. She did pick up a pair of boots for when it snowed or was really muddy.

In the pokemon section of the clothing department, Vali had each of her pokemon select something to wear. Balto chose a cream colored collar. Smaug chose a crimson colored bandanna with flames printed on the edges that he had at the base of his neck. Pikachu chose a blue bandanna with a white tribal pokeball on both sides that he had around his neck. Idril chose a neon pink ribbon that was tied into a bow around her right arm. Arwen chose dark blue bandanna that was tied around her left front leg. Terra chose a pale blue bow tie. Lastly, Eevee chose a red bandanna designed much like Pikachu's.

Once everyone was done in the clothing department, they headed to the TM section. They had made a list of what permanent TMs Zaria and Steven already had before coming to the department store. So long as they had a pokemon that could learn it and a TM that the other person wanted, they could exchange TMs. As Steven was 14 almost 15 and had been a trainer the longest, he had 12 permanent TMs that would be dead useful for both the younger trainers though Zaria already had one of them. The three TM vouchers Vali had been given were quickly used to buy Brick Break, Sunny Day, and Toxic. Each was a move that could be learned by at least two of her pokemon, Toxic would give her an edge in battle that she definitely needed. She bought a more expensive version of the TM case that Zaria got, but only because it would be more durable and hold more TMs. After getting her TM case, she grabbed the permanent TM for Protect and Substitute.

Zaria took one look at her choices and snorted before asking, "Are you trying to piss off your opponents?"

Vali shrugged with a small grin, "No. I'm just making it so my pokemon will be hard as hell to take down when they finally reach Master-level."

If Sirius were there, he would probably drop to the ground and wail about how his precious pup had turned into a Slytherin. It was a mental image that made her snicker and promise herself to take pictures of Sirius when he finally learned what kind of battler she was. She really needed to see if Sirius had popped the question yet.

* * *

Delia was the one to answer when Vali called home, "Vali! Where are you this time?"

"Celadon city. I would've called you when we went to Saffron, but we were more concerned with getting out of there as soon as possible," Vali offered Delia a sheepish smile, "Sorry,"

"It's fine, Vali. I trust that you didn't have much trouble getting to Celadon?" Delia asked her curiously, "No trouble with any wild pokemon or other trainers, right?"

Vali nodded as she relaxed into her seat, "No trouble at all. We mostly spent both riding Arwen and Skarmory. I think Pikachu's more than a little irritated with me for having him try to keep up with Arwen though."

Delia snickered softly, "I'll bet. Maybe you should see if he wants a break, I know that Celina misses you a lot."

"That might be a good idea," Vali admitted as she thought about it, "I'll ask him later. I think she'd probably enjoy being able to battle in my next gym battle,"

Not to mention the fact that Vali really wanted to spend some one on one training time with Celina, she wanted to keep the bond between them as strong as possible. She missed feeling the Pidgeotto's pokeball on her belt and the bird pokemon's presence. She knew that her other pokemon missed her even Terra who hadn't known the Pidgeotto for more than two weeks. Pikachu would probably be thankful for the reprieve and the increase in food he was likely to have thanks to being at Professor Oak's lab. He would get to meet her mother and little brother who were bound to spoil him rotten. With that thought in mind, she was definitely going to ask Pikachu if he wanted to take a break.

Delia talked about how things were going at home and the new things Ash was getting into. Even with school to take up some of his time, Ash was finding ways to get into trouble. Vali had to shake her head at some of the things he got into as well as wonder how the hell he managed it. She doubted anyone other than Gary could end up getting lost in the forest near Pallet town and save a Pidgey egg from being eaten by an Ekans only for it to hatch for him moments later. Ash now had a pokemon to raise and probably end up having as his starter pokemon in the event Professor Oak didn't have enough starters for everyone. She had to comment, "At the very least, Ash'll be ahead of his classmates save for Gary on how to properly take care of pokemon."

"I still have no idea how he could have gotten lost," Delia shook her head with a small smile, "That boy..."

"His Pidgey will keep him from getting lost once it's able to fly," Vali told her earning a laugh, "Anyway, is the old dog still there?"

"Yes though I think he's going a bit stir crazy," Vali shook her head lightly at that, "Honestly, I'm thinking about tossing him to Professor Oak if only to keep him from driving me insane. At the very least, Ash is kept busy once school and his homework are done,"

Sirius hated being cooped up inside as much as Vali disliked staying in crowded cities. It was against his inner nature as a Grimm animagus to stay inside especially after Azkaban. Vali snorted softly, "Let's just hope they don't pull too many pranks," Sirius has been corrupting Ash to the prankster ranks since a year into their stay in this world, "Anyway, has a certain mutt popped a very important question or is he still beating around the bush?"

Delia giggled as Vali wiggled her eyebrows, "It's times like this that remind me you aren't actually a ten year old," She sighed soft, "Not just yet, I'm giving him two more days before I do it."

Muttering under her breath about stubborn old dogs, Vali said, "Good luck, Delia."

Vali and Delia chatted for a bit longer before hanging up.

* * *

Pikachu looked a bit surprised by Vali's offer before agreeing to it. He could use a break to fully recharge himself and get some time to himself. He also wanted to meet the one Vali called 'Delia' since she made those really good snacks. He preferred Vali's cooking, but her's came as a close second. He was also curious about the young male human she called her little brother. While he knew the boy wasn't her blood kin, he still wanted to meet the one his trainer called family.

* * *

After making Pikachu a good last meal and allowing everyone to say their goodbyes, Vali returned him before sending the mouse pokemon to lab in exchange for Celina. Once the exchange was complete and they bid each other goodbye for now, she headed to the training field where her pokemon were settled with Steven and Zaria. She released Celina into the world and the Pidgeotto flew around for a bit with a fierce cry before settling down in front of her. It was in that moment that she saw just how much Celina had changed since they last saw one another.

Celina was larger than before. If Vali had to guess, she'd say that Celina was just a few inches shy of the regular height of most newly evolved Pidgeot. Celina's wing span was probably double what it had been the last time they'd seen one another. She had begun to lose the yellow-gold color in her tail feathers. The crest that had grown in upon her evolution from Pidgey to Pidgeotto was starting to lengthen and even out as small bit of yellow-gold began to form. The claws on her feet were lengthening alongside her beak. With all this in mind, it was quite clear that she was going to evolve soon enough.

Zaria whistled in appreciation of the bird pokemon, "Okay, she is definitely cooler."

Vali ignored that commented as she held out a hand to Celina, "Hey, Celina. Did you enjoy your break?" Celina let out a trill and bent down her head to allow Vali to stroke her feathers, "Good. I see that you've been training too. Once you say hello to everyone, do you want to show us what you've gotten up to while on your break?"

Celina nodded with a pleased trill before hopping over to her teammates. Balto was the first one to greet her and the puppy pokemon was clearly pleased to have the Pidgeotto back. Smaug eyed her in both happiness and jealousy making it quite clear that he could tell she was close to evolving which would probably motivate him to train harder if only to evolve as well. Sandshrew greeted the Pidgeotto a little shyly alongside Terra making it clear that they would need time to get used to the larger bird pokemon. Arwen greeted her cheerfully and nudged the Pidgeotto with a gentle whicker. Eevee greeted her with a soft yip of greeting earning the Pidgeotto's full attention. Out of all the pokemon greeting the Pidgeotto, she hadn't expected Eevee to be so social.

Vali let her pokemon greet one another as she walked over to her bag. She settled down and pulled out her incubator. Carefully pulling the egg out, she began to rub the shell with a soft cloth as warmth radiated from it. Balto wandered over to gently nose the egg before curling up against her side as he usually did whenever she had the egg out. Each of her pokemon were fascinated with the egg, they knew it would be another member of their family which made protecting it important. Slowly, each of her pokemon made their way over to either nose the egg or touch it as gently as possible, Celina followed them clearly quite curious about the egg. Seeing that curiosity, she explained how it came to be with them.

Celina laid her feathered head on the egg as she let out a gentle trill. The warmth of Celina's soft feathers eased the ache that had grown in Vali's chest when the Pidgeotto was gone. A new ache developed at the lack of feeling Pikachu's familiar weight settle on her shoulders or the small bit of static caused by him rubbing his cheek against her.

* * *

Celina had been quite busy since leaving and Vali suspected that she'd been training with the other flying types currently at the Corral. The Pidgeotto was far faster than she had been before and more skilled when it came to aerial maneuvers. When she checked Celina's pokedex entry, she found herself very proud of the Pidgeotto. Celina knew Feather Dance, Aerial Ace, and Air Slash. She was working on Agility which would definitely benefit them later on. Once she got it down, she would teach Vali's other pokemon who were able to learn it if they didn't learn it on their own.

With the knowledge that Celina was so close to evolution, Vali spent a lot of one on one time with the Pidgeotto. When it came to the final evolution of any pokemon, you had to have a strong bond with them in order to keep them from turning on you. The only pokemon that it didn't usually occur in were the starter pokemon of each region which was the main reason they were given to ten year olds just starting out. Then again, they were likely to turn on you if you were stupid enough to abuse them or they were of bad breeding. She made sure the rest of her pokemon understood what was going on and made sure they knew that she would be doing the same thing with each of them when they started reaching their final evolutions as well. By looking at Smaug, she knew he would be the next one to evolve if he had anything to say about it.

* * *

Smaug stared at Celina with jealousy burning in his heart. He had missed the bird quite a bit while she was gone, but he was jealous of her. She was so close to evolution when he still needed a good push before he reached that level. It wasn't that he'd been lax in his training. Vali ensured that they trained hard and were healed up for more training the next day. And yet, she was ahead of him despite being the weakest member of the team until the little ones had joined them. It grated on his fire-type and Charmeleon pride that the bird was going to evolve before him.

Smaug knew he shouldn't be as jealous as he was. Celina had worked her tail feathers off to become as strong as she was. She did it for their trainer and their family which was a great goal that he could respect. And yet, he was jealous about not being able to evolve before her especially since they evolved around the same time before. A distant part of him wanted to blame Vali for not being able to get him to evolve sooner, but he quashed it with a small growl of anger. It wasn't Vali's fault that he hadn't evolved yet. Celina had the advantage of being around other flying-types able to give her advice on what to do and that went a long way in helping her grow as strong as she was without Vali being around. If he had more fire-types around than just Balto, he probably would've grown as much as she had.

What Smaug needed was to throw himself further into his training and battle more often to gain the experience needed to evolve. If he worked hard, he could probably evolve before or during their next gym battle. He grinned at the thought of evolving in the middle of battle once again. It made his heart beat quicken and the fire in his core burn hotter. And once Celina evolved, Vali would focus on everyone again and he could get her to use him more often in battles.

* * *

The tournaments in Celadon didn't always involve battling or anything of the sort. Some heavily resembled contests from regions like Hoenn and Sinnoh, they were mostly started by trainers that had traveled to those regions in hopes of bringing the contest circuit to Kanto. If it became popular enough, the dream of having the contest circuit in Kanto would become a reality as the League was always looking for more ways to bring in money. One of the tournaments Vali was participating in was a triannual flying-type competition that involved aerial battles and showing off the flying-types ability to move in the air. While Steven was interested in the tournament, Skarmory wasn't interested in flying with any of the other pokemon outside of Celina, so he was out of options at the moment seeing as the steel bird was his only flying-type at the moment.

A majority of the competition involved skirmishes between up to eight pokemon at a time. Considering the fact that there were around 88 flying-type pokemon involved this time, they had to move the competition to one of the large fields set aside for pokemon racing which was another thing Vali was planning on checking out if only to give Arwen a proper outlet for her almost endless energy. A group of psychic type pokemon mostly Mr. Mime with a couple members of the Abra-line thrown in created a proper barrier for both trainers and observers to safely watch the competition. One of the things emphasized by the competition was the lack of instruction by trainers once their pokemon were in the air. As Vali's pokemon usually weren't given instructions unless she saw something they didn't or thought of a new strategy, Celina would be perfectly fine especially since she hadn't had much instruction from Vali since being sent to the lab.

Celina looked at the current skirmish going on with sharp eyes as Vali said, "Since you'll be participating in more than one skirmish, I want you to try to let them take each other out. If you see an opening, go for it, but don't exhaust yourself," Celina nodded as she looked at her trainer, "I know you'll beat most if not all of these guys, but don't get too cocky. If something happens or you strain something, I want you to land, okay?" Celina nodded earning a warm smile from Vali as she rubbed the Pidgeotto's breast feathers, "Do your best, Celina. I don't care if you win or lose so long you enjoy yourself."

Celina let out a trilling coo as she nuzzled Vali's chest. A boom from above followed by gasps caused both of them to look up. One of the five Pidgeot in the competition was falling from the sky with a clearly broken wing and blood dripping from multiple scratches. A Staraptor with the telltale blue static recoil of a Brave Bird shivered in the sky above it clearly the one responsible for the Pidgeot's current state. Vali's lips pulled into a grimace as the Pidgeot's trainer fumbled with his pokeball in shock which allowed for the great bird's injuries to become even more severe when it hit the ground harshly. Thankfully, Pidgeot was already knocked out otherwise the pain it was in would be excruciating since it landed on its broken wing. If the trainer managed to get it to the pokemon center quickly, Pidgeot might be able to keep flying if the damage wasn't that bad.

Vali heard a loud shriek of pain followed by the sound of a heavy body hitting the ground with a wet thud. Looking towards the source as terrible shrieks echoed through the air, the Staraptor laid on the ground twitching in agony with its wings at odd angle. She felt her stomach rebel at the sight of its right wing which looked like something had tried to tear it off. The jagged white edges of bone could be seen among the blood. A glance at the sky showed a Fearow with a crimson stained beak and talons crowing in joy before it began to look for its next victim. Off to the side, a few of the other rookie trainers were painting the ground with their lunches.

Vali took her eyes off the scene before her as she covered her mouth. She looked at Celina, "Please be careful."

Celina nodded to Vali as the skirmish came to an end. The trainer of the Fearow was removed from the competition due to the fact she hadn't curbed her pokemon's sadistic tendencies. The fact that she hadn't looked the least bit surprised by her pokemon's actions or seemed to care that it had likely ended the life of its opponent made a shiver go down Vali's spine.

* * *

Thankfully, no other pokemon seemed to share the Fearow's idea of how battles like this were supposed to go. There were broken bones and more than a few scratches, it was a battle after all, but there weren't any mutilations or chances of never being able to fly again. Celina did fairly well with Vali's strategy and showed of just how much she liked using Feather Dance. With the amount of wind being kicked up by the presence of so many flying-types, the feathers were blown around for awhile. Vali ended up collecting a few both from Celina and from the feathered pokemon. One of the things she liked about this competition was how the pokemon involved could only use flying-type moves. As a result, the pokemon had to be clever and good at manipulating their innate energies.

Vali's usual hit and run strategy proved very useful to Celina seeing as she managed to take out more than one distracted pokemon. If the pokemon didn't get taken out, she got it to think that one of the others had attacked it leading to some interesting fights if said pokemon were partners. The other trainers cursed when they realized what Celina was doing, but there wasn't anything they could really do. In battles with multiple pokemon involved, it was hard for those fighting to focus on anything other than attacking and defending themselves.

Celina being a fast flyer ensured that those attempting to take her out early couldn't hit her. Either the attacks completely missed or managed to hit a less than pleased flying-type that hadn't been paying attention. More than one attacker had found themselves in hot water, a few other Pidgeotto or Pidgeot ended up being taken out fairly early because of it. Needless to say, Vali was very happy and made sure the Pidgeotto knew she'd be getting a special meal for doing so well.

It was during the last skirmish when a second Staraptor managed to hit Celina with a Brave Bird that the Pidgeotto evolved. Upon evolving, Celina had taken out the Staraptor with Wing Attack which she hadn't known before the skirmishes before returning to the ground breathing hard. Vali took to the field where Celina had landed while all movement stopped as many gaped at the newly evolved pokemon. Vali called out to her, "Celina!" The newly evolved Pidgeot focused on her with a piercing gaze, "You did wonderfully and even evolved. Well done!"

Vali stopped a few steps from Celina. It was far enough that Celina would have to reach out to attack her which would give the witch enough time to get out of the way should the Pidgeot decide to attack. It was close enough that Celina knew she wasn't afraid of the Pidgeot attacking her. There a few tense moments as Celina judged Vali's worthiness to be her trainer before the Pidgeot stepped closer and practically collapsed against her. She gently rubbed Celina's breast feathers which were close enough that she could lay her head on the Pidgeot's chest without having to bed down. She spoke softly as the newly evolved Pidgeot leaned heavily on her, "I'm going to return you and get you checked out by Nurse Joy. After that, we'll have a really good meal together and get you used to your new body."

Celina let out a low trill and moved enough to let Vali return her. Moving back towards where Steven and Zaria were standing together, she found quite a few other trainers either offering her congratulations, thanking her for the battles, or being asked if she wanted to trade her Pidgeot. The first two were politely smiled at as she shook their hands. Those apart of the last one were given cold glares that made them freeze and sweat, she made it very clear in a hissed tone that she wouldn't be taking any offers. With Balto and Smaug growling at her side, it led to many backing up in fear as they nodded hurriedly.

Zaria was laughing when Vali reached them while Steven shook his head in amusement. Zaria gasped out, "You scared the shit out of them."

"They deserved it for daring to ask me such a stupid thing," Vali would never trade any of her pokemon if she could help it.

Sure, Vali would eventually need to do so in order to evolve the Magmar she eventually got into a Magmortar when the time was right, but that was it. Steven offered her a light smile, "Shall we go to the pokemon center and get Celina checked out?"

"Mhmm," Vali nodded as she began to walk.

* * *

Celina was given a mostly clean bill of health. The only problem she had was overexerting some muscles in her wings by doing the Wing Attack so soon after evolving and some bruised ribs from the Staraptor's Brave Bird that had been cracked before she evolved. Thankfully, It only required Celina avoiding any thing to do with train or anything more than eating/going to the bathroom for a week which was a small price to pay. The Pidgeot wasn't happy about being unable to train or get used truly used to her new body. Oh, she understood why, but really didn't like it.

To pacify Celina, Vali had the Pidgeot meditate and train her mind. A significant part of Agility involved pushing past the mental limits on how fast you could go without damaging your body. When the pokemon in question managed to use it, they took some of their innate energy and created a barrier around their muscles that prevented them from being torn apart due to going far faster than they naturally should. The barrier got weakened each time the pokemon using Agility used it more than once a day and eventually snapped under the strain thus creating the reason why Agility was often forgone for moves such as Tailwind. In order to use it effectively, the pokemon using Agility needed to build up a resistance to it which took a lot of time and energy that most trainers below master-class didn't have time for.

Vali would be having Balto do the same thing once he evolved and learned Extreme Speed. While the Growlithe-line were made for the move due to how they've evolved over the years, they still needed to train it in order to use it effectively. Learning Agility would help in the long run, Celina would be teaching it to Balto when she finally managed to learn it.

* * *

Vali spent her first week in Celadon competing in various competitions as well as cheering Zaria on during the Grass vs Fire tournament. Steven joined in one a few tournaments that caught his eye, but mostly spent his time training his pokemon or doing research on whatever caught his eye when he wasn't watching the two girls battle. Celadon didn't have anything really interesting going on that any of the trainers felt like participating in outside of battling unless you counted the Game Corner. It wasn't until Zaria got second place in the Grass vs Fire tournament with Nuzz that the trio decided to go check it out as a way to celebrate. Of course, Steven wasn't quite sold on the idea seeing as the Game Corner was a lot like a casino, but the girls still managed to drag him along. If there was one thing all of them agreed on, it was that they needed to take a break from battling or really exercising their minds.

Zaria rolled her eyes as Steven fidgeted again as they reached the rather flashy building, "We'll be in there for an hour and only spend up to a three hundred poke-dollars. Just relax."

Vali shook her head and tugged Steven inside. Immediatly, the scents and sounds of the place hit them as soon as they got through the door. The place wasn't overly crowded, but there were still more people than she would have liked. The lights and sounds coming from the machines were a bit loud for her taste. She definitely wasn't going to spending more than an hour inside if only to prevent a headache from forming. Spotting the front desk, she led the way towards it. It barely took them any time to get their coin cases, coins, and some knowledge about the games. At the current moment, the Game Corner boasted a slot game, a betting game involving Voltorb, and a higher/lower game.

"I think I'm going to try the slots," Vali said as they looked at the various sections, "They're relatively low risk,"

"I'll do Voltorb Flip," Zaria decided as she began walking off.

"I'll do the slots," Steven decided after a few moments.

They headed to the slot machines and settled down next to each other. Vali put in the required 5 coins and pulled the lever. When it stopped, she ended up with five Staryu and 50 more coins than when she started. Smiling a bit, she repeated the process.

* * *

When the hour was finally up, Vali was 20,000 coins richer while Steven managed to earn about 5,000. Zaria ended up losing most of her coins and only managed to earn 500 much to the dark-type masters annoyance. They headed to the prize section which boasted both pokemon and TMs as prizes. Vali didn't bother looking at the pokemon prizes. She didn't need a new member of her team though the Abra and Porygon prizes were tempting enough that she would probably come back eventually to get one. It made her wonder how they got said prizes in the first place since Abra were hard pokemon to catch on a good day in the wild while the Porygon were expensive enough that only those rich enough or well connected to the League could get one.

Vali looked over the TMs before picking three of the permanent versions. She easily picked out Psychic and Shadow Ball which covered two rather glaring holes in the various elemental moves she had access to even if she didn't have any pokemon that could use them yet. She hesitated before picking up Giga Impact which was commonly referred to as the physical Hyper Beam. At the very least, it wouldn't cause as much damage trying to train it and she wasn't going to actually use it until her pokemon were ready.

Steven picked up the last permanent copy of Gyro Ball that they had in the Game Corner. Zaria was pouting until Vali handed over the rest of her game coins seeing as she didn't have a use for them. Zaria picked up the Shadow Claw TM and some charcoal sticks. Zaria handed her the charcoal sticks with a grin, "Thank you, Vali."

"No problem though let me borrow that Shadow Claw TM to teach Idril, okay?" Vali asked earning a nod.

* * *

"Try it again, Smaug," Vali advised as she observed the irritated Charmeleon.

Smaug drew in a deep breath before releasing a powerful stream of Embers that slammed into the rock they were practicing on. So far, Smaug had managed to strengthen the power of Ember, but he couldn't do much more than create a constant stream of projectiles rather than a stream of flames which was needed for Flamethrower. Vali frowned as Smaug's attack petered out and he turned to look at her expectantly, "The power is there and you've managed to create a steady stream rather than the short bursts that you did before," Smaug let out a frustrated sigh, "I know it's frustrating, but we'll get there even if it isn't right away," She closed her eyes for a moment as she tried to figure out something to do, "Maybe try holding your breath once you've inhaled as much oxygen as possible?" She opened her eyes and looked down at Smaug who shrugged, "Let's try it out."

Smaug nodded and turned back to the target. He took a deep breath before holding it for a few minutes before releasing it. Immediatly, Vali could feel the difference in the heat from the Ember attack which looked a bit more like live flames than coal-like projectiles. Smaug stopped and smirked looking pleased with himself since it was progress. She took out her pokedex and marked it down before going onto the files it had one Flamethrower. She watched one of the short clips and grinned when she noticed something, "Okay, I think I've got another idea," She waved a curious Smaug over, "See how this Charizard is doing it?" Smaug watched the video with sharp eyes and nodded slowly, "The increase in oxygen is a definite, so keep up that. I think it's do the placement of it's tongue," She restarted the video and pointed to the open maw of the Charizard, "Try placing your tongue in a few diffrent positions and maybe open your mouth wider too."

Smaug's eyes narrowed as he moved back to where he'd been standing. He had a look of complete concentration on his face as he took another deep breath before holding it. Vali watched him carefully as drew back his head a bit before releasing the flames brewing inside of him. The difference was immediate as it looked more like a proper stream of flames than a powerful stream of Embers. When the flames stopped, Smaug grinned and bounced a bit before stopping as he turned to her with an expectant look. She turned to his pokedex page before shaking her head making him frown, "Just a little bit more and I'm pretty sure you'll have Flamethrower down, Smaug."

With a determined expression on his face, Smaug turned back to the target. Instead of immediately trying again, he stared at the target for a few minutes. When he finally took a deep breath, he drew in more air than he had during his previous attempts before he held his breath. When he released the next stream of flames, Vali watched in awed happiness at the Flamethrower he released. Checking his pokedex entry, she grinned while shouting, "You did it! You learned Flamethrower!" Smaug cut off the flames with a grin and she rushed over to hug him, "You did it, Smaug. I knew you could do it!" Smaug hugged her back, "Now we just need to work on you pulling it off more quickly. Once we do that, we'll work on power output. I'm looking forward to seeing just how powerful it will be when you're a Charizard since most Charmeleon don't learn Flamethrower before they evolve."

* * *

Vali fiddled with the TM machine for a few minutes before turning to her pokemon, "Alright, I've decided that each of you will be learning at least one TM before the gym battle. If you manage to master the TM I'm having you learn, you'll either get to choose another one or learn a new move that your species knows."

Vali returned Balto and placed his pokeball in the slot before going through the list of TMs she had. She selected Protect seeing as Balto needed a defensive move. The machine hummed as Balto's pokeball was enveloped in a greenish gray sheen. When it faded, the machine chimed as a transfer complete notification appeared on the screen. Removing Balto's pokeball, she released him and Balto shook himself vigorously before sneezing. Smiling a little, she asked, "Try using Protect, Balto."

Balto barked before closing his eyes tight. A shimmering see-through greenish aura began to rise from Balto's fur as his face scrunched up in concentration. It stopped advancing a few inches off of his body and began to visibly vibrate before shattering causing Balto to open his eyes as he began to pant softly looking a bit tired. Vali reached over and scratched behind his ears, "A very nice first attempt, Balto."

All of her pokemon save for Celina and Eevee were given TMs to play with. Celina was working on Agility now that she was healed and Vali wasn't going to risk Eevee's trust especially since they still had almost two more months left before he made his decision of whether he'd stay with her or not. For Smaug, she chose to teach him Sunny Day since he didn't have many area wide attacks and it was a fairly harmless move most of the time. For Idril, she chose Protect as well since it would up the Sandshrew's defense and hopefully give the young pokemon some courage. For Arwen, she chose Toxic both because it wasn't a move most Ponyta ended up learning and because the Ponyta could use her high stamina to wear out her poisoned opponent. For Terra, she chose Substitute as the Larvitar needed something to offset her current move-set that fit in with her favored battling style. On the plus side, Arwen would hopefully be able to help Idril learn how to use Poison Sting once the Ponyta mastered Toxic to an acceptable degree.

Once everyone had their TMs, they set to training. Vali worked with each of them though she found herself focusing a bit more on Smaug. He wasn't very happy learning an non-attacking move even if he understood why. It was while they worked on Sunny Day that she began to understand why he was so irritated. Smaug's body was starting off the process of evolution. One of the key signs in Charmeleon were an increase in hormones that led to heavy aggression as the body began the process of getting ready for evolution. Once she realized that, she returned him and headed into the pokemon center to have Smaug checked out.

While Charmander evolving into Charmeleon wasn't too bad, Charmeleon evolving into Charizard put a lot more stress on the body. The growth of wings and the separation of the horn-like protrusion on the back of the Charmeleon's head were just some of what went into the final evolution of the Charmander-line. The lungs of a Charmeleon grew rapidly alongside the sacks that allowed the fire-type to produce their fire. The lungs gained a new membrane which would allow the Charizard to fly at high altitudes without becoming short of breath. The brain grew larger and more advanced to allow for the Charizard to use its new instincts as well as understand the mechanics needed for flight. And that didn't account for the change that the Charmeleon's inner flame went through when it reached its maturity not to mention the addition of becoming a flying-type, the final evolution of the Charmander-line was extremely painful due to how much had to happen during the short period of evolution.

It was better to be safe than sorry when it came to final evolutions especially for a Pseudo-dragon.

* * *

Steven looked at Vali when she left the pokemon center, "What's going on?"

"I think Smaug's starting the long process of evolving into a Charizard," Vali answered as she sat down next to her bag, "I'd rather get an expert opinion on the matter than ignore the signs and paying for it in the long run,"

"How long will it take for Nurse Joy to figure it out?" Zaria asked as the dark-type master in training walked over.

"A couple hours since Smaug isn't showing any outward signs just yet," Vali was a bit anxious about the results.

On the one hand, Vali was happy if it meant Smaug was going to evolve while they were in Celadon since it meant that there was a pokemon center close by. On the other hand, she was worried about the pain that he was going to go through. Smaug would likely cause a lot of trouble before and after he evolved. An increased aggressiveness was not going to be fun especially when you considered that she only had one fully evolved pokemon capable of kicking Smaug's ass. When he fully evolved, she didn't know if he'd start challenging her other pokemon for the leader spot. If he did, she didn't know how Balto would do against him. While Balto was older than him, Smaug would be a fully evolved pokemon with the benefit of a fully matured inner flame and the power it gave him. An experienced unevolved fire-type vs a fully evolved pseudo-dragon with the added pride of a flying-type. Yeah, she definitely had a reason to worry about it.

* * *

When Nurse Joy called for Vali, the fire-type master in training was taken to an office with a calmer Smaug sitting on the floor. Upon entering, Smaug immediately got up and rushed over to her. She bent down to hug him and scratch under his chin. She let go of him and sat down in the offered chair while Smaug settled on the ground beside her with his tail in his lap. She looked at Nurse Joy who sat down with a file in hands, "Nurse Joy, what's the results?"

"You were right to have us check him out as Smaug is definitely in the beginning stages of evolving," Nurse Joy replied with a small smile, "It shouldn't take longer than two to three weeks for him to evolve,"

Vali smiled at that, "Looks like you're going to evolve soon, Smaug."

Smaug looked at her with a pleased grin on his face. Vali turned back to Nurse Joy as the woman said, "Of course, this comes with its own risks, I assume you're aware of them since you received him from Professor Oak."

Vali nodded as she laid a hand on Smaug's head and began to rub the base of his horn-like protrusion earning a low crooning sound, "Yes, Ma'am. I also attended his lectures on the Charmander-line and have been keeping up with the latest breakthroughs in order to keep him as healthy as possible."

"Good," Nurse Joy looked satisfied with her answer, "Most rookie trainers don't do that though it makes sense, you've only got a select few pokemon,"

"They're my family," Vali stated earning a warm smile.

Nurse Joy nodded as she opened the file, "Good. Now, the reason we're having this conversation in my office is because there are some special things you'll need to do both before and after Smaug evolves though I assume you're going to bring him to the nearest pokemon center when he does," Vali nodded, "I'll still give you the information of what to do after he evolves if you're not able to get to the nearest pokemon center when it happens just in case."

* * *

Smaug would need extra vitamins and berries added to his food in order to get all the nutrients needed for his coming evolution. Smaug would need to work heavily on gaining mastery of his flame control before he evolved as his control would become pretty much shot upon his evolution due to a high increase in power if he didn't. After training was done for the day, she should focus on massaging the part of his back where the wings were and along Smaug's horn-protrusion to ease the aches that were bound to form closer to when he evolved. Training into exhaustion was encouraged as it would ensure his increasing aggressiveness didn't cause more trouble than it was already going to. And lastly, she should avoid pitting him against lower skilled pokemon as it would likely making him even more aggressive due to how weak they were.

After Smaug evolved and she couldn't reach a pokemon center, Vali had to make sure Smaug's wings were fully formed and there weren't any visible abnormalities. Smaug was not to battle anyone until she was able to bring him to a pokemon center. He was to limit the about of fire-type moves he used. He was to avoid flying until after he was cleared by a Nurse Joy. She was to keep him away from her other pokemon if he proved to be aggressive upon evolving. He was not allowed to go near any water unless it was in a water-bottle and only if he needed a drink. And he would need to place his tail flame in a camp fire for at least two hours in order to make sure it stays lit if he's exhausted after evolving, she had to make sure his tail flame didn't die down to a flickering flame otherwise he'd be crippled.

Needless to say, Vali was not going to leave Celadon until after Smaug evolved and was cleared by Nurse Joy.

* * *

Zaria whistled as she read over the lists Nurse Joy had given her, "Damn, I didn't think so much went into evolution."

"It's mostly with pokemon that go through drastic changes with their evolutions," Vali explained as she rubbed between Eevee's ears as the fox-like pokemon curled up in her lap, "Since evolution occurs in the span of a short few moments, it can cause a lot of pain for those that have drastic changes. It's one of the reasons that trainers with members of the Nidoran-line are warned to avoid going near their pokemon if they managed to evolve them into their final state,"

Zaria gifted Vali with a raised eyebrow, "Why do you know so much about evolution?"

"I was curious about what would happen to my pokemon when they evolved and Professor Oak was more than happy to indulge my curiosity," Vali shrugged lightly, "I wanted to better understand my future partners and what better way than to help ease any pain caused by evolutions,"

"Are you going to become a scientist when you finish traveling if you're not going to become a member of the Elite Four and an ACE?" Zaria handed the lists back.

Vali placed them into her bag as she said, "No, I may be smart and understand some of this stuff, but I honestly don't have the patience for all the schooling required for a scientist. I'm also not one of those people that can stand being stuck in an enclosed space for however long it takes to research something," She leaned back against her head board, "To be honest, I really want to be a photographer if I don't succeed in becoming an Elite or an ACE. If it comes down to it, I'll become one of Professor Oak's wandering data collectors. They can go wherever so long as they gather date for the Professor."

"I think I can see it," Vali looked at her in confusion, "You're one of those people that prefer being away from cities and stuff. The idea of you traveling to parts unknown to collect data for Professor Oak while taking awesome pictures no one else has is something I can honestly see you doing with a smile on your face,"

Vali smiled as she ran that thought through her mind, "Yeah, but who knows what will happen in the future. For now, I'm going to focus on enjoying my journey, training my family members, bonding with them, and gaining new ones when they show themselves."

Zaria snickered with a smirk, "You're definitely an odd one, Vali. I've never met someone that calls their pokemon family. Precious friends, yes, but not family."

"I'd rather create a family that can watch my back through bad situations while I do the same than a pokemon team that only obeys me because I'm their trainer," Vali shook her head softly, "What's the point of having powerful pokemon when there isn't true trust and love?"

Zaria opened her mouth before shutting it and shook her head, "You get really philosophical sometimes, Vali."

"Mostly when it comes to things like my team," Vali looked down at Eevee with a soft smile.

Eevee would always be a member of her family even if he left them.

* * *

Vali took Idril aside a few days after she gave her pokemon their TMs. It was time to teach Idril how to find precious stones with a heavy emphasis of Fire Stones. Taking out the fragments of the Fire Stones that Professor Oak gave her, she was happy that they didn't seem to really react to her. She felt the faint sparks of power inside of them, but that was it. Maybe once Idril had learned how to find Fire Stones and they weren't near civilization, she'd see what she could do with them. Vali picked up one of the bigger pieces and held it out to Idril. Idril sniffed at the fragment before sneezing and looking at her, "Idril, this is the fragment of what's known as a Fire Stone. They're what Balto's species use to evolve into Arcanine like the Pack Mother we visited with during our time on Route 7," Idril nodded while giving the fragment a curious look, "One of things Sandshrew and Sandslash can do is find evolutionary stones like a Fire Stone. I want you to memorize everything to do with this fragment so you can find Fire Stones later. After all, we might end up with more family members needing one. Can you do this for me?" Idril nodded and Vali handed the fragment over, "Once you're reasonably sure that you have it memorized, I'll hide a fragment and you'll have to find it. Okay?"

Idril nodded and Vali left her to it for now. It would take a lot of time and patience for Idril to learn how to find Fire Stones. With any hope, Idril will be able to find them with reasonable accuracy though she was definitely going to keep the fragments around just in case she end up with another pokemon with the same ability.

* * *

During the two weeks before her gym battle, Vali set her pokemon on a strict schedule that would ensure they were ready for what was probably going to be the first of many difficult battles now that the kid gloves had come off. While Erika was the newest Gym Leader, she had to be strong enough to take over for the last one and pass the qualification test all Gym Leaders took in order to become one. Theoretically, anyone could become a Gym Leader so long as they were able to take the test, have no less than four members of the current big eight's approval, and had at least two pokemon able to last a full two minutes again the weakest Elite Four. They also had to pass whatever test the proceeding gym leader set which usually involved acting a gym trainer for at least a year. Considering most gyms were inherited by a member of the main founding clan of the city it was in, most people didn't try to become a gym leader even if they had the skill unless Viridian City was once again changing Gym Leaders.

Vali doubted that Erika would use her strongest pokemon against her since she was a rookie trainer, but that didn't mean she shouldn't prepare for the worst. She took to watching the trainer videos on Erika and looked through the message boards which was the best place to go to for information when it came to the newest gym leaders. Learning that Erika was extra rough on those that insult the smell of her gym made it very clear that she needed to breath through her mouth, Balto would need to get used to the over powering scents if she wanted to make sure he was effective during the battles. Erika generally used a Victreebel, a Tangela, and a Gloom. She wondered how Erika had managed to get her hands on a pokemon like Tangela which were generally kept in reserves or bred by private breeders due to their rarity. It was something she was definitely going to ask the Gym Leader once the battle was over and hopefully she would get to learn some new stuff about the odd pokemon.

Vali had to wince when one of those that had been practically decimated by Erika complained about how strong her Venusaur and Maganium were. Yeah, she had no interest in having her butt handed to her by one of those. Erika probably had a host of non-Kanto grass-types if she had a Maganium which were as exclusive to Johto as Bulbasaur were to Kanto. Erika was likely waiting until after her first year to switch things up which was a good thing if only because none of the pokemon were unfamiliar to her save for Tangela. Obviously, Erika was going to be one of the Gyms she wasn't likely going to try her hand against once she finished her badge run even when you considered type differences unless her pokemon were on a higher level than they currently were.

With the knowledge of the pokemon Erika had and a tentative knowledge of her current style, Vali began to focus her pokemon's training. As it was probably going to be a 3 on 3, Vali chose Arwen, Celina, and Smaug. Arwen was doing very well during battles and it would be a good idea to see how she did against a gym leader. Celina would be able to take care of any powder movies tossed at her and would be hard to grab on to while in the air. Smaug would probably need a little push by the time her gym battle happened and evolving at the end of a gym battle would ensure he would be pretty much fresh while his opponent would be exhausted. The only reason she considered using Smaug at the moment was due to the fact she knew he wanted to evolve during a battle not to mention it would be safer for him to evolve during a battle because of the increased adrenaline would keep him from falling unconscious. In the event of the gym being too small for Celina to comfortably fly, she was having Balto train hard as well.

Terra and Idril weren't being left out on the hard training especially since it would ensure that they'd be more powerful when they got to their prime. Vali focused on mastering their attacks and gaining stamina as well as endurance. Outside of the ground, Sandslash and Tyranitar were fairly slow though the former was a lot faster than the latter. With that in mind and after a talk with Nurse Joy, she filled up some balloons with soil mixed in warm water. After they were done their warm-ups, the two had to dodge the water balloons. With the amount of soil she added the mix, the mixture wouldn't harm either of them while it built up some resistance to water which was needed if they were to reach elite level. Neither of them were happy about it, she was sympathetic, but didn't stop until they were too tired to dodge.

As a result of her improvised training method, they were improving their stamina and endurance bit by bit each time Vali had them do this training. Combing her seeker and pokeball throwing skills, the two had to work hard to avoid her throws. If it hadn't been for the fact she cleaned them up afterward and offered them treats for a good days work, they probably would've rebelled by now. At the very least, she was including the others during various parts of the day.

All of her pokemon were annoyed with Eevee since he was never forced into participating. They may understand that he wasn't going to train unless he wanted to until he was cleared to actually battle other pokemon, but that didn't mean they had to like it.

* * *

On the days her pokemon were given to rest, they spent the day exploring Celadon. Celina ended up picking out a piece of white ribbon with tiger lilies printed on it when Vali took her to pick out something that would mark her as Vali's pokemon. She took the time to choose some permanent flame stickers as well as ones with her initials on them. After putting them on the bottom of her pokeballs which she hadn't seen anyone else doing, she took her pokemon to the pokemon food area in the mall. It was there she was able to let all of them out since it was encouraged to let the pokemon choose their food from the samples of each. Needless to say, they enjoyed being spoiled even if they would only be able to eat the food they like on rare occasions until she learned how to make it properly without decimating their supplies.

They visited areas where the musicians in the city practiced their new songs. They visited the local botanical gardens were they got to see plants that weren't usually grown in Kanto. Vali actually got some berries and seeds that weren't grown in Kanto. After checking with Professor Oak, she sent them home to Delia in hopes the woman would be able to grow more of them since some were especially good like the Mago and Salac berries. They visited the local play hall where pokemon of all sizes and types could enjoy a play alongside their trainers. They also watched some of the contests that happened. Needless to say, some of her pokemon enjoyed the show that was put on.

Balto, Celina, and Terra loved the performances even if some of them weren't particularly good. Vali told them that they could try putting together a performance. It would help them refine their control which was something Terra would need for when she eventually evolved. While she loved battling, she could see the appeal in Contests and the Pokemon Showcases that were popular in Kalos. They looked like a lot of fun and she appreciated that a majority of the higher level participants were skilled enough to turn powerful attacks into something beautiful rather than destructive. The power the pokemon had was understated rather than forced to the front thus allowing them to be underestimated by any opponents their trainer may come across. To be quite honest, it greatly appealed to her inner Slytherin which wasn't something she'd mention to Sirius until the old dog annoyed her enough.

When Zaria battled Erika, Steven and Vali tagged along to support her while also gathering intel. The battle was rather quick paced and a bit brutal though no where close to the almost complete beat down Zaria suffered at the hands of Lt. Surge. Erika used a Bellossom as her last pokemon which nearly managed to take out Zaria's pokemon mostly because they were unfamiliar with the species. They still pulled through and won the battle. Before Erika left after giving Zaria the badge, Vali called out to the older girl, "Gym Leader Erika?"

"Yes?" Erika looked at Vali curiously.

"My names Vali. I was hoping you could tell me more about Tangela since you have one," Vali told her as Zaria and Steven looked at her in surprise, "Professor Oak doesn't have much information on them and I'm trying to help him out by sending anything new I find out. I've been curious about them for awhile since they're an odd pokemon," She paused for a moment before saying, "Of course, I won't be put off if you're too busy at the moment. As the newest Gym Leader and someone that's trying to create a school, you're probably a bit too busy,"

Erika looked a bit shocked by her words before smiling at Vali, "I don't mind though it'll have to wait a few days."

Vali grinned at her, "That's perfectly alright, I honestly didn't think I'd get a chance to ask."

"Come by the gym at noon in three days and we'll talk over lunch, alright?" Erika asked earning an eager nod, "Good. I need to get going, but it was a pleasure meeting all of you,"

"See you in three days, Gym Leader Erika!" Vali couldn't wait to talk to her.

After they left the gym to get Zaria's pokemon checked out, Zaria asked, "What was that about?" Vali looked at her in confusion, "You seemed really energetic."

"Oh that," Vali offered her a sheepish smile, "I love watching good battles since they get me excited and your battle was a really good one. I've also been wanting to talk to Erika about her Tangela since I found out about it,"

"You like grass-types?" Zaria asked with a raised eyebrow.

Vali nodded as they reached the pokemon center, "I like all kinds of pokemon though my heart lays with fire-types. Each type and individual pokemon has something special about it. Grass-types might be weak against fire-types, but they're able to acclimate to whatever climate they live in no matter what unless it's on an ice float without any soil. Grass-types are steadfast pokemon that have more patience than any others save perhaps for certain fighting and psychic-types. I admire them greatly even if I prefer fire-types."

Zaria didn't reply if only because there really wasn't something she could say about it. In order to be a good pokemon master, you had to respect the power of any pokemon you came across even if it was a type that you didn't exactly like.

* * *

Erika led the way to one of the smaller restaurants, "I've been coming here since I was a little girl. They have some really good food that's not bad on the wallet."

"Do they allow pokemon?" Vali asked as they reached the door.

"Yes, but it's limited to one pokemon per person and it can't be bigger than a medium sized one," Erika pushed open the door, "Basically nothing over the size of a Milktank, so Balto is fine,"

Good, it meant that she wouldn't have to pay a rather large sum of money for all of her pokemon to eat. After getting seated and ordering some food after Erika let out her rather cheerful Tangela, they began to talk as Tangela began to touch Balto with some of it's vines. Erika smiled at the sight of Balto allowing the touches, "Balto is a rather well behaved pokemon even for a Growlithe."

"He's about five years old," Vali informed her as Balto sniffed at Tangela, "He actually helped me get used to being in Kanto after my godfather and I arrived a few years ago," She looked at Tangela, "How long have you had your Tangela?"

"Only for a couple of months, the Tangela I usually used during battles evolved and he wasn't exactly something I could use on beginner trainers once he finally got used to his new body," Erika explained as Tangela reached out to her, "So what are you questions?"

Vali took out the notebook she'd brought with her and opened it as she took out a pencil, "Where did you get your Tangela?"

"My first Tangela was given to me by my grandfather who was the gym leader until this season when I took over," Erika answered as Vali wrote that down, "My second one, the one that evolved a month before I got this one, I caught during a trip to the Orange Islands though I can't remember which one exactly. I ended up hatching this one,"

The drinks arrived with both the girls getting tea while Tangela was given water and Balto was given moo moo milk. Vali wrote down Erika's answers before asking, "How long did it take for her to hatch and when did you get the egg?"

"I got the egg in late February and she hatched in late July," That would mean it takes four months for Tangela eggs to hatch, "She was one of two eggs with me giving the other to my younger brother. My first Tangela gave me the eggs,"

"Did your first Tangela act off or anything before giving you the eggs?" Vali asked her curiously as she wrote down what Erika had said.

Erika thought about it before nodding, "From mid-November to mid-February, she was off balance though it wasn't until closer to mid-February that it got really bad. She wouldn't go outside at all and stayed in the warmest areas of the green house. She wasn't aggressive at all which is the only reason I didn't think she was pregnant. She'd been eating an increasing amount of pokemon food which is abnormal since she rarely eats pokemon food unless she isn't getting enough sun. She had a habit of cuddling the younger grass-types and submerging the bottom of her body in the ground," Erika paused for a few moments, "I think she also drank more water, but can't quite remember."

Vali nodded as she wrote the information while making a rough estimation of Tangrowth gestation that Professor Oak would probably be able to make more sense of, "Are there any pokemon she was really close to before she started acting off?"

Erika nodded with a concentrated look, "My oldest Victreebel and my male Maganium until she got into a fight with my female Maganium."

So it was likely the Tangela currently gurgling happily as she petted Balto had a Victreebel for a father, it wasn't the weirdest combination she could think off.

* * *

Erika proved to be a well of knowledge when it came to Tangela and Vali had quite a bit of information to give Professor Oak. She even managed to convince Erika to send Professor Oak a Tangela egg when she had a chance if only to give the old man a better understanding of the species. She gained a lot of respect for Erika both for being the youngest Gym Leader at the moment and because she loved her pokemon as much as Vali. Erika didn't exactly see them as family, but they were dear friends that she would do anything for. As a result, she told the gym leader what she knew about the grass-type eeveelution, Leafeon.

Erika invited Vali to have tea with her a few times during the rest of her time in Celadon City. She accepted the offer both to talk with Erika and to enjoy a cup of quality tea which she hadn't be able to do since she started her journey. While she may not act like it very often, she was a born Brit and a good cup of tea was always appreciated.

* * *

Professor Oak beamed at Vali when she finished giving him a short summary on what she'd talked to about with Erika, "Vali, thank you for doing this for me."

"It's no trouble, Professor," Vali assured him, "I honestly enjoy learning about pokemon even if they aren't fire-types. I was going to ask her this stuff anyway though not in so much detail, but ended up thinking of you when I was heading to the gym to meet with her,"

"I look forward to seeing what you've written. Could you possibly ask Erika if she'd mind contacting me?" Professor Oak requested earning a nod, "Thank you. Do you want to talk with Pikachu?"

"If you don't mind, Professor," Vali said and soon enough Pikachu was sitting in front of the screen, "Hey, Pikachu. Enjoying your vacation?" Pikachu nodded vigorously, "Good. All I ask is that you try to keep up with the training schedule I gave you. Maybe talk to the other electric-types around the corral, Celina really improved since she did it, so I'm hoping you might be able to as well," Pikachu nodded seriously, "Have you met Delia, Ash, and Sirius yet?" Pikachu nodded with a soft grunt, "Good. If you get bored at the Corral, you can always spend some time at my house in Pallet. Just have Ash's Pidgey show you the way there when it finally managed to fly,"

Vali caught Pikachu up on what happened since she'd sent him to the Corral. By the end, she could tell he was going to be doing some serious training which prompted her to remind him to not overexert himself. Getting stronger was all well and good until you started damaging yourself, she would never forgive herself for allowing any of her pokemon to hurt themselves because they trained too hard. After saying goodbye to Pikachu and Professor Oak, she called home. Ash answered the phone, "Vali!"

"Hey, Ash," Vali greeted the boy with a light grin and spotted the Pidgey nesting in his hair, "So that's the little Pidgey you found,"

Ash beamed at her, "Yeah! He's awesome!" Ash went on for five minutes about how cool his Pidgey was despite not being able to fly properly just yet, "And everyone in class was so jealous of me getting a pokemon early."

Vali frowned at him when she heard that. She knew that Ash was nothing like Dudley or Draco, but the idea of him becoming like them made her stomach turn. She wouldn't let someone she considered a little brother turn out like those two selfish and arrogant pigs if she had a say in it, "Ash, you aren't bragging are you?"

Ash shook his head, "No, Mom, Sirius, and Professor Oak made sure I knew not to brag. I don't want to get other kids hurt just because I got lucky."

"Good," Vali was glad at least someone was willing to curb such tendencies before they got really bad, "How are things at school other than you having a pokemon?"

"It's a lot of fun for the most part, but some stuff's really difficult," Ash admitted with a soft sigh, "Stuff like history, it's so boring,"

"It might be boring, but you need to learn that kind of stuff, Ash," Vali understood the pain all too well, "History is important especially if you're going to be a pokemon master," She thought of something, "If you're having trouble learning something, go up to the lab and ask around Professor Oak's assistants. They'll probably have a lot of ways to make learning that stuff more fun and probably help you understand things better,"

"I'll try," Ash promised her.

"That's all I ask," Vali smiled at him, "Just think of it as another step towards becoming a master,"

Ash perked up a bit, "That actually makes it a bit better."

"Now," Vali smirked at him, "Has my old dog of a godfather asked Delia to marry him?"

"No, but," Ash lowered his voice while casting a glance around him before getting closer to the screen, "Mom's taking him out for dinner tonight while I have a sleepover at Gary's house. I think she's going to do it tonight,"

Vali grinned brightly, "Good. Once Sirius marries Delia, we'll really be siblings."

Sirius had adopted Vali in this world at the prompting of those around him to protect her from those that wouldn't have her best interests at heart. While Ash and Vali were happy enough to call each other siblings, it would be nice to have them recorded as siblings on official records. There was also the fact that the kids teasing Ash about not having a father would shut up, she hated how cruel kids could be sometimes. Ash smiled at her, "Yeah."

Vali noticed the line waiting for access to the video phones in the corner of her eyes, "I got to go, Ash. I'll try calling tomorrow. By the way, I gave permission for Pikachu to come to the house if he wanted to. So long as you aren't too pushy or anything, he might help you train Pidgey when he's old enough to battle."

Ash's eyes brightened, "Thanks, Vali! I'll tell them. Talk to you soon."

"Talk to you soon," Vali replied and ended the call.

Vali got up after taking her pokedex from the machine and walked away as the video phone was taken by someone else. She was eager to see how things turned out and couldn't wait for tomorrow. Delia and Ash would officially be members of her family once Delia married Sirius which was the best feeling in the world. The old dog would have someone other than her trying to reign him in and he would have someone that could ground him when he had a relapse. Despite the fact she was Sirius' goddaughter and came from the same world, she had her own problems and it wasn't healthy for him to lean on her. To be honest, she was glad that Sirius would have Delia to help him out since it would mean he couldn't unintentionally hurt her by mistaking her for James Potter. While she had nothing against her birth father, it hurt to be constantly compared to him especially after she learned about how much of a bully he'd been.

 **Updates will only be occurring once a month from now on since I might've gotten a job.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997: This chapter is a few days early, I got my job and its a bit difficult to get used to. I have to get up earlier than I'm used to, but I'll manage it. It's pretty decent pay-wise too. Anyway, I had some fun with this chapter and hope you enjoy it.**

 **Reviews:  
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 **frankieu : Thanks. I am too. **

**kfawcett1998 : I'm glad you like it so much. If you want another good one, I'd suggest Traveler by ****The Straight Elf. It was actually part of what inspired me to write this.**

 **Twister60 : I'm glad you like it. **

**Lady Kaiki : Thank you.**

 **the lil witch : Thank you.**

 **IskandarVesperia : Thanks! That's the whole thing I'm trying to do with this story. I love the name.**

 **Jostanos : Sure, Ash and Pikachu could 'click', but Vali's Pikachu isn't the one Ash is going to get. I am mentally debating about Ash meeting his Pikachu earlier.**

 **AnonChan1 : I'm always glad to get long reviews. So few people leave them. Trust me, I understand the trouble. It takes me awhile before I put up my first chapter of any story. I'm glad you like these so much!**

 **PikaMew1288 : You'll see.**

 **comodo50 : I think I answered any of your question in this chapter.**

 **DarthLeo : I've read that. I wish she continued writing it.**

 **ThunderClaw03 : Yeah, she does need help. **

**Koshiro Unohana : Oh, your review made me smile! I love that story too!**

 **cerezo. dulce11 : They're going to end up being one per month for a while, but I will ensure the quality and length stay the same.**

 **xirons20 : Thanks. To answer your question about magic users, you'll just have to wait and see. She does, she is a fire-type master-in-training who has done her research on every fire-type pokemon in existence. **

**Sn : Three reviews. Review 1: You'll just have to wait and see.  
** **Review 2: You'll have to see.  
Review 3: You'll have to see.**

 **akinomatis : I'm glad you like it. Perhaps though it'll be awhile before she finds any animal form(s).**

* * *

 **Words: 20,117**

* * *

Chapter 10

* * *

"C'mon, Arwen!" Vali frowned as Arwen reared in an attempt to get the Mankey they were battling off of her back, "Use Flame Wheel to get it off!"

"Shit!" The Mankey's trainer swore as Arwen used Flame Wheel causing Mankey to scream in pain as it was flung off of Arwen, "Mankey, are you okay?!"

The Mankey jumped up with a screech of anger and dove towards the Ponyta as Arwen's Flame Wheel died down. Arwen reared when it rushed towards her before shrieking in pain as the Mankey slammed a fist veiled in dark purple. Arwen was sent skidding to the side, but managed to keep on her hooves though it was quite clear by the sweat coating the Ponyta's body and her harsh breathing that Arwen was on her last legs. The Mankey looked much the same for all of five seconds before being engulfed in the light of evolution. When the glow died down, a Primeape stood in the Mankey's place. Vali cursed, "Damn it."

"Alright, Primate!" The newly evolved pokemon's trainer grinned brightly, "Let's kick that pony's ass! Use Karate Chop!"

"Arwen, Flame Wheel!" Vali shouted knowing that Arwen couldn't take much more of this.

Primeape launched itself forward as it drew back it's glove covered fist as a bluish red aura coated it and Arwen reared before racing forward as flames coated her body. The two collided and the two energies battled for a few moments before sending both pokemon flying with an explosion of smoke. When the smoke died down, Primeape stood up while Arwen was struggling to stand up. Arwen reached the halfway point before crumbling and passing out. The other trainer cheered as he raced over to his newly evolved pokemon while Vali rushed over to Arwen. Dropping down, she began to look over Arwen wanting to make sure nothing was broken. The other trainer cleared his throat, "Hey, that was a nice battle."

"Yeah. Congrats on your pokemon evolving," Vali replied as she glanced towards the guy.

Vali dug out the promise 150 poke and handed it to the guy. He took it, "Thanks. Will Ponyta be alright?"

"She should be since I don't think anything's broken, but a visit to the pokemon center is in order," Vali took out Arwen's pokeball and returned the Ponyta before standing up, "Thanks for the battle,"

"Thank you too!" The other trainer raced off.

Vali shook her head and peered down at Arwen's pokeball. That was the first battle that Arwen had lost since they'd arrived in Celadon, it would be good for the Ponyta in the long run if only ensure she didn't turn arrogant, but it still left a bad taste in her mouth. If only that Mankey hadn't evolved, they might've actually won this battle or tied. She spoke softly, "You did your best, Arwen. Thank you."

Arwen's pokeball shifted and warmed up in her hand before returning to normal. Vali headed to the pokemon center with two things in mind. Get Arwen healed up and call home to see what happened with the whole date thing, she needed some good news to help cope with the loss.

* * *

Sirius answered the phone when the call went through, "Hey, Pup! In Celadon, I see."

"Yeah. It's been a lot of fun," Vali said fighting back the urge to just burst out and ask the question she was dying to ask, "I've been waiting to talk with you since I heard that you were home, but it seems like I miss you every single time,"

"It looks like luck isn't exactly on our side," Sirius frowned at her, "Are you alright, Pup? You seem a bit down,"

Vali stared at him in surprise before sigh, "Arwen lost her first battle since we got to Celadon. It was a really close battle and we might've won if it weren't for the other trainer's Mankey evolving. Granted, it looked pretty close and we might've ended up tied," She shook her head, "I know that we've got to lose sometimes and that I should be grateful that it happened during a relatively unimportant battle, but it still stings a bit."

"I can't say I know the feeling since I'm not a pokemon trainer," Sirius smiled at her, "You've got a good way of thinking about it though,"

"So I could use some good news," Vali eyed him with a sly grin, "So did you say yes?"

Sirius gaped at her, "How did you know abou-Ash."

Vali snickered at Sirius' scowl, "Pretty much, he wants us to be a real family not just one by spirit. I do too."

Sirius whined at her, "What is it with you kids and wanting us to be in a relationship?!"

"Because it'll help make you happy," Vali replied as she leaned forward, "Siri, it's time for you to be happy and settle down. You know that's what Mom, Dad, and Mooney would want,"

Sirius smiled lightly, "Yeah, you're right," She gave him an expectant look, "Yes, I told Delia yes."

"It's about fucking time," Vali cheered with a grin, "When's the wedding? Have you made any plans?"

"Not yet, we're mostly enjoying the fact we've made it official," Sirius looked more than a little amused, "I didn't expect you to ask things like that since you're a total tomboy,"

"Doesn't mean I don't enjoy that kind of thing especially when it involves family," Vali definitely felt better now, "So any news on Regulus?"

"He has found a few females and they seem to really like him which means at least one of them will probably end up with an egg from him," Sirius answered earning a grin, "We won't know if he got them at least one of them pregnant for about three weeks once mating season ends in a few days,"

"Well keep me posted," Vali couldn't wait to get a Houndour egg.

"Do you think you'll be able to handle it?" Sirius asked her with a slightly worried look on his face.

Vali would have been offended if it wasn't a reasonable question. One of the hardest aspects of being a pokemon trainer started the moment you got a pokemon egg. Protecting and caring for the egg before it hatched then raising the pokemon that came from the egg, you became a parent of something that had instincts you would probably never fully understand and it was up to you to mold them into a great pokemon. The little pokemon would look upon your actions which would shape its entire future. With something like that hanging over your head, a lot of trainers decided not to raise a pokemon from an egg or chose to abandon the baby pokemon. Vali offered Sirius a reassuring smile, "I should be able to handle it. I did raise Idril after I found her and I'm prepared to adapt. If I need any help, I'll consult the nearest Nurse Joy like I'm doing now with the egg I got from that Ninetales. Besides, I wanted this which means I have to suffer the consequences. It'll be a bit hard at first, but I really think I'll be able to do it."

"At the very least, you've thought this through," Sirius turned his head as he heard a shout, "Ash just got back from school. I got to go make sure he does his homework,"

"Remus would probably accuse you of being an impostor if he heard you say that," Vali grinned as Sirius snorted with an eye roll and heard her name on the intercom, "I got to go, Nurse Joy's calling for me. Tell Ash that I'll catch him later and hope he's had a good day at school. Tell Delia that I said congratulations,"

"No problem. Talk to you later, Pup," Sirius replied earning a bright grin.

"Talk to you later, Siri," Vali said before the call cut off and she retrieved her dex.

* * *

Arwen was disappointed in herself for losing a battle even if the pokemon she'd lost to had won because it had evolved. Sure, she knew that they probably would've had a draw otherwise, but that didn't take away her disappointment. The worst part of it was that she'd disappointed Vali of all people. She knew that the leader of this odd herd, or pack if you went by Balto's thoughts on the matter, wouldn't hold it against her. Vali wasn't the type of person to punish her pokemon for losing or holding it against them. And yet, she was angry with herself for losing.

Arwen trained hard alongside each member of the herd save for the hurt one who trained beside their herd leader. She put her all into the training especially once she was tired enough to actually focus on what they needed to do. She knew that losing was a big part of life seeing as she'd seen many of her kin try to take over protecting the herd from the master, but losing due to just how diffrent their power levels were. She too had lost against the master when he'd evaluated her just a week before her current herd leader came across their migration. The only difference was that this time actually hurt her. Not physically though the bruises did ache horribly even with Nurse Joy's assistance, it was the emotional pain that hurt.

The knowledge that she'd failed to win for her herd leader left a bad taste in Arwen's mouth. Vali worked hard to make them stronger and push them to their limits as much as possible. Vali took care of them, trained them, and loved them like kin. Vali only asked for them to work hard, protect their herd, get along as best they could, and fight as hard as they could. And what had Arwen done in return? She'd lost a battle that she would've won if she'd been stronger.

Arwen's ears pinned back and she stamped her hoof on the floor in agitation. Arwen froze when she felt the comforting hand of her trainer on her shoulder. Looking at Vali, she was surprised to see the sad smile, "Hey, Arwen. I guess we lost that battle," She kicked the ground and snorted, "It doesn't feel nice at all," She shook her head, "I know that you're disappointed in yourself. I'm disappointed in myself as well," She looked at Vali in shock earning a smile from the trainer, "You thought I was disappointed in you? No way, you did your best after all and I could think of a ton of things that I could've done to help increase our chances of winning," Vali shook her head lightly, "But the thing is, we kind of needed that loss," She snorted in confusion, "I know that doesn't sound right, but we did need to lose. You were getting cocky since you hadn't lost a battle since we arrived in Celadon. I was getting a bit cocky too even though I tried to tell myself that I wasn't," Vali rubbed the back of her neck with a sheepish expression on her face, "Damn, I could've phrased that better or been a bit more clearer," She tossed her head back and nudged Vali wanting her to get on with it, "What I'm trying to say is that we needed this loss to motivate us to work harder. Just because Celadon is a grass-type gym doesn't mean we won't lose if we don't start working even harder, we need to use the our feelings of loss as fuel for our inner flames to become stronger."

Now Vali was speaking her language, Arwen was feeling less of a sting from the loss and even more determined to do better next time.

* * *

Now that Celina was fully healed and finished her major growth spurts, Vali took her Pidgeot to the pokemon center recommended saddle maker. While not exactly the best of the world, they lasted for at least a year with hard use and were in the general budget of rookie trainers. Unfortunately, it wasn't close to the pokemon center at all which meant she would have to go to a part of Celadon which she hadn't been too before. With Steven and Zaria doing their own things, she would have to try and navigate through the city alone which would be fun considering just how lost she could get in a city.

Balto walked beside her along with Smaug. They would hopefully keep her from getting too lost though sometimes they were just as bad as her when it came to not getting lost in cities. While Nurse Joy had given her a paper with written directions on it, they would likely get lost at least once if not more during their trip to the saddle maker. Thankfully, the citizens of Celadon were relatively friendly and would probably point her in the right direction if asked. With any hope, they'd find the place before it closed and Balto would be able to follow their scent trails back to the pokemon center.

Thankfully, the weather was pleasant which meant the walk wasn't unpleasant. It was actually nice taking a break and getting to explore the city further. Balto seemed to enjoy the walk greatly if only because the scents of the various flowers. Smaug liked it as well though he disliked the amount of people and pokemon around them. Vali found a few places that were perfect to take pictures in which meant she'd give her pokemon some real time to play around and relax while she indulged in her favorite hobby. She was sure that they'd enjoy the break as would Steven and Zaria if they wanted to join her. With all the training they were going to do, they would need some time to relax and decompress otherwise they'd end up wearing themselves out.

After an hour, they managed to find the saddle maker with some help from a few helpful people and an older trainer that had just left the shop. Entering the saddle maker shop, she was surprised that by the general homely feel of it. It mixed fairly well with the scent of leather and some kind of oil that smelt kind of nice. Balto and Smaug sniffed the air before letting out sounds of pleasure as their eyes went half-mast. Vali bent down, "You two okay?"

"They'll be fine," The man at the counter said, "The special oil we use to make our saddles weather resistant tends to make any pokemon that smells it act like that. It's helpful when we need a pokemon to relax in order to properly measure them up for saddles and make any adjustments we need to for their saddle," Vali sighed in relief and stood up properly, "My names Jacob Barnes and welcome to Barnes and Blues Saddles,"

"Valkyrie Potter though I prefer Vali," Vali introduced herself as she walked towards the counter with Smaug and Balto breaking out of their stupor to join her, "I'm actually here to get a saddle,"

"Not for either of these two right?" Jacob asked earning a snort.

"Not for a long while though I doubt I'll get a saddle when I finally evolve Balto," Vali had ridden Professor Oak's Arcanine multiple times and definitely preferred 'bare back' riding when it came to Arcanine, "My Pidgeot evolved during the last flying competition and she's finally finished healing up. Nurse Joy recommended that I come to your shop since I'm still in my first year and you're saddles are apparently reasonably priced,"

Jacob snapped his fingers, "You're the one who's Pidgeotto evolved during the last round, weren't you?"

"Yes," Vali looked at him in surprise, "Were you there?"

Jacob nodded with a bright grin on his tanned face as his dark brown eyes turned bright, "Yup! I go every time they have that contest since I'm a big fan of flying types. This year was pretty good though that part with the Fearow..."

Vali grimaced alongside Jacob at the reminder, "Yeah, I almost pulled Celina out when I saw that, but I knew that she would benefit from the experience."

"And that she did," Jacob's grin returned full force, "So your Pidgeot's name is Celina?"

"That it is," Vali laid a hand on Celina's pokeball, "How does this work?"

"Since I'm the one in charge of all flying-type saddles, I'm your man," Jacob answered as he took out a pad of paper and a pen, "My brother-in-law is the one you would be going to with a land based pokemon though my little sister is the racer of the family," Vali nodded slowly while making note of who to ask for when Smaug and Arwen evolved, "Now, I need you to answer a few questions before we even begin making the saddle. Has Celina grown at all since evolving?"

Vali nodded after thinking about it, "A couple of inches in height after a few days, but that's pretty much it."

"Which means she's done growing for now though you'll probably have to adjust the saddle next year since Pidgeot tend to grow a bit larger every year though it tappers off a bit after the first six to seven years," Jacob wrote something down on his pad of paper, "Has she learned Agility or Tailwind?"

"Not yet, but she is trying to learn Agility at the moment with Tailwind next on the list," Vali answered as Balto and Smaug leaned into her, "Why?"

"It'll tell me if I have to treat the materials in a certain way to prevent the finished saddle from failing due to quick changes in speed," Jacob patiently explained as he wrote another thing down, "Do you know how old she is?"

"No, but I did catch her not far out from Pallet Town," Vali would have to pay extra to find out how old her wild born pokemon were making it not really worth it until she managed to place high in a Conference, "Since she only knew two moves at the time and it wasn't long after July, I think she's probably 6 months old if not a bit more,"

Jacob wrote that down, "Not too surprising, do you know if she's allergic to anything?"

"Nothing that can found in regular pokemon food or any berries I've found," Vali answered earning a nod.

"Which means we won't have much to worry about for the most part," Jacob smiled as he wrote that down, "That's all I need from you, so let's get started on measuring Celina,"

Jacob led the way to a large room filled with various tools though Vali only recognized the ones that Professor Oak usually used to measure and weigh the pokemon that came to his Corral though far less complicated looking. Vali released Celina when Jacob asked her to and the Pidgeot looked a bit surprised to find herself inside, "Celina," Celina looked at her curiously, "We're getting you fitted for the saddle like I told you about," Celina focused on Jacob and gestured with her wing, "He'll be measuring you and making your saddle."

Jacob spoke as Celina nodded slowly, "My name is Jacob Barnes. I must say that you're one absolutely gorgeous looking Pidgeot," Celina preened at the compliment which pretty much placed Jacob into her good books until he did something stupid, "Now, can you walk over here and stay still so I can get started?"

Celina did as he asked and settled in the place he asked her to. Vali sat down in the chair Jacob pointed out to her with Balto and Smaug settling down beside her. They watched as Jacob went about measuring and taking down the data he needed to properly fit Celina. He fawned over the big bird and made sure they all knew what he was doing. When he finished, she asked, "So how long will it take for the saddle to be finished?"

"We'll need to do a few fittings, but it should be done in a week and a half," Jacob answered which wasn't that bad considering the quality she'd be getting, "It'll also come with its own carrying case that won't weigh more than two or three pounds,"

"How much do you think the saddle will cost?" Vali wanted to make sure she had the money ready and wouldn't have the temptation to use it.

Jacob looked over the information sheet he'd made, "Hmm, it shouldn't be more than three thousand to four thousand poke."

Inwardly wincing at the price, Vali knew it could have been worse, "Well that's not too bad."

"Of course not, I mean if it was for a pokemon like a Rhyhorn, we'd be talking about something close to ten thousand since we'd have to make it extra durable," Jacob snorted as she visibly winced at that price, "Not something anyone other than a serious Rhyhorn racer would go for. Now, give me a few moments to get the Standard Contract,"

Because the League didn't want to get sued by anyone when it came to faulty saddles or other custom made pokemon items, they created what's known as the Standard Contract. It basically said that both parties signing the contract were aware of the risks and agreed to deal with the fallout should there be any. It meant that the League wouldn't have to deal with the paperwork and legal headaches that came from human stupidity. Since only those backed by the League and Nurse Joy approved had the contracts, the people trying to scam unassuming rookies or naive people couldn't lay the blame on the League. More than one idiot decided to try going after the League only to end up in hot water for not having the Contract, it never paid to be greedy.

Vali had no trouble signing the contract after she'd read it. Since the Contracts were all written and tracked by psychic-types trained by the League, they couldn't be faked since the signature on them couldn't be copied by anyone since each one was unique. Jacob handed her a copy of the Contract that she'd be sending home tomorrow with the souvenirs she was planning to send. Once that was done, she left the shop after returning Celina.

* * *

"So pretty much four thousand poke?" Zaria asked with a raised eyebrow, "That's a lot, but you do have that prize money you won from the tournament back in Vermilion,"

"Yeah not to mention the money I've been winning during my battles," Vali could make the money back if she battles often and checked out more of the activities that Celadon had to offer, "It'll be worth it since the place is known for saddles that last over a year even with heavy use,"

"So worth it though I don't envy you in the least," Zaria shook her head.

"Envy who?" Steven asked as he walked up with a lunch tray.

"Vali," Zaria answered earning an eye-roll.

Steven looked at her with a raised eyebrow as he sat down beside her and she said, "Celina's saddle is going to cost around four thousand poke. I have more than that which means it won't be too big of a hit. I'm going to be looking into more of the activities available and see if I can make the money back. While I don't think I'll make everything back before it's ready, I'll hopefully make back at least half of it."

"How long will it take for the saddle to be made?" Steven asked as she took a bite from her 'turkey' sandwich.

After she chewed and swallowed her bite, Vali took a drink of her lemonade, "A week and a half."

"You should be able to manage to make back half in that time if you adjust your schedule to fit in a few battles a day," Steven picked up a forkful of what looked like spaghetti though she didn't really recognize what kind of noodle they were.

"By the way, I actually found a few decent parks that aren't too crowded and have a wide range of pokemon in them," Vali said as she remembered the things she'd come across during the walk to the shop.

"Really?" Zaria looked at her in interest, "Any trainers?"

"Not too many and the ones I saw were there to relax," Steven looked interested.

"It would be a good idea to take a break during our training if only to give our pokemon time to recover properly," Vali nodded as that was the main reason she'd mentioned it.

* * *

Vali took Celina out to one of the 'fly-zones' in Celadon with Steven and Skarmory. Steven knew how to ride a pokemon bare-back since he did it with Skarmory a majority of the time. Steven showed her how to get onto Celina and where to sit so that she wouldn't obstruct the movement of Celina's wings. When she was settled and had some of the long red feathers that acted as the reigns for Pidgeot in hand, Celina took off into the air. She was pressed into the Pidgeot's body from the sheer force of the wind pressing down on her though it abated once Celina found a height she was comfortable with. Sitting back up, she looked around them and felt a sense of piece fall over her, "I forgot how nice it was to fly," Celina trilled and did a few lazy circles in the sky as they waited for Skarmory to join them, "I'm glad that I can experience something like this with you, Celina."

Despite the difference between the ways she'd flow before, Vali felt more comfortable on Celina's back than she'd ever been on a broom or Buckbeak. She supposed it was because something inside of her understood that Celina would never willingly let her fall. It let her focus on the freeing feeling of flying and just enjoying the moment that she had with her pokemon. The warmth of the sun and the feathered body below her prevented the minor chill in the air from really affecting her. Steven smiled as Skarmory joined them, "How does it feel to be flying again, Vali?"

"Freeing," Vali answered as Celina began to flying towards the edge of the fly-zone, "It feels a lot more comfortable than a broom or Buckbeak ever felt,"

"Oh?" Steven looked at her curiously.

"It's because I know that she'll never willingly let me fall," Vali grinned as Celina trilled in agreement and did a little spin the air, "Hey, Celina. Once you're done getting used to my weight on your back, I want to see what you can do though nothing too big until I have a saddle,"

Celina let out a cry of agreement as Steven snorted in amusement. Feeling a bit childish, Vali stuck her tongue out at him earning a laugh as Celina sped up a bit.

* * *

When they landed two hours later, Steven quickly made his way to Vali's side to catch her before she slammed face first into the ground. Riding on any pokemon for more than a thirty minutes always led to cramping unless you were used to it, he knew that from experience when Skarmory started letting him ride her. Vali had the brightest grin on her face as she leaned heavily into him making him smile a bit. With all the shouting and screams of laughter she'd made, he had no doubt she might not be able to speak much tomorrow. He asked her, "Feeling alright?"

Vali nodded as she reached up to rub Celina's head right underneath her crest, "Yeah. Despite having a lot of maneuverability with a broom, I've never actually flown like that before. Once I got used to it, I felt like I was part of Celina and that just made the whole experience better. I feel...Amazing."

The breathy tone she used and the brightness of her eyes told Steven that she'd be flying again as soon as possible. He could understand the feeling since flying with only your pokemon beneath you was exhilarating. While he may love tunnels and caves, the sky held a special place in his heart ever since the first flight he'd had with Skarmory. He had spent almost every day for months flying with Skarmory and probably wouldn't have stopped if Metagross hadn't reminded him that he needed to give everyone attention. The novelty of flying still hadn't let off and he still flew with Skarmory whenever he could, but he did make sure to give his pokemon equal attention rather than let any of them fall to the wayside. While he doubted Vali would fall under the same spell as him, he knew that she would probably fly with Celina whenever she had a real chance.

* * *

Vali managed to sign Arwen up for the junior division pokemon races which were a lot like the horse races back in her old world only without the jockeys. Arwen was certainly one of the faster pokemon there, but she had to work hard to win any of the races. With each race in the junior division gifting the winner somewhere between 600 to 700 poke per race, she would be able to make the money she'd spent on Celina's saddle back. She also entered Balto in the non-equine pokemon junior division which boasted a decent 400 to 550 poke per race. Both of her them would enjoy the heavy exercise and benefit from it, she might even be lucky enough to have both of them learn Agility since they'd have to push pass the limits of what their mind considered their top speed in order to win some of the races.

The junior division races always started at 8 in the morning and lasted until 10. Between those two hours, you could always count on at least nine diffrent races if not ten depending on the amount of pokemon participating. Vali signed Arwen and Balto up for three races each while making sure they were spread apart to allow both of them time to recover a bit. During the first race, Balto won and Arwen lost since she'd been startled by the sound of the horn. The second race saw Balto winning again though this time he almost lost as one of the Houndour in the race managed to keep up with him and Arwen managed to come in second. In the third race, Balto lost by a tip of a nose and Arwen won her first race of the day.

Vali managed to earn 430 poke with Balto's first race, 470 poke with his second, and 600 for Arwen's first win of the day. As a result she managed to get back 1500 poke which was almost half of what she was spending on Celina's saddle. With any luck, she wouldn't have to use any of her savings to buy the saddle which would be nice.

* * *

"So can you help me out?" Zaria asked Vali as the fire-type master-in-training was going through the information that was known about Erika.

Vali looked away from the computer and asked, "What do you need my help with again?"

Zaria pouted at her, "Aren't friends supposed to listen to each other?"

Vali gestured to the computer screen, "I'm doing more research on Erika since I still have to battle her," She ran a hand through her hair, "So what do you need my help with?"

"Since we're in Celadon and the game corner is open, I was hoping you'd help me get an Eevee," Zaria bounced a bit in her seat, "This will probably be my only chance especially since their changing out the pokemon in a few days. Please! Think of it as a way to pay me back for teaching Pikachu Double Team,"

"Didn't I already due that by helping your pokemon get used to electric-type attacks?" Vali leaned back in her seat.

Zaria groaned, "Please, Vali."

Vali thought about it while looking back at the computer. She supposed it wouldn't hurt even if getting pokemon from a place like the Game Corner felt cheap to her. How do you know the pokemon was meant to be one of yours? She rubbed at her eyes and figured that a bit of mindless gambling might be a good idea since she was getting a headache from trying to come up with strategies. If anything, it might be good for her to take a break from researching for a little while. Finally, she logged off the computer and grabbed her pokedex before standing up to stretch. She looked at Zaria, "Alright, but don't try to convince me to get any pokemon."

"Sure, sure," Zaria grabbed her hand and began dragging her out of the pokemon center, "Though I don't know why you don't want one,"

"It feel cheap to me," Vali shrugged as best she could, "Not battling a pokemon or ended up in a situation that leads to you catching them, it just seems wrong. Besides, where do the pokemon come from and where do they go if the game center doesn't give them away? Sure, they probably come from breeders, but still,"

Zaria faltered a bit before resuming the light jog, "True, but it at least gives us a chance to get pokemon we normally wouldn't."

"Ever heard of the safari zone or Kalos?" Vali retorted earning a snort.

"That costs more money than I have at the moment," Zaria replied as they made their way to the game corner, "Besides, who says no to some mindless gambling?"

"Steven," Vali answered earning a snicker.

* * *

Eevee stared at his cousin as the kit enjoyed the affection Vali's 'friend' was lavishing on him. He didn't really care for the other. The kit was too... _perky_ in his mind. He knew that the kit hadn't been through what he'd been through, but that didn't mean the kit should act so damn cheerful. Of course, he acknowledged that the kit bugged him because Vali was paying attention to it. Nothing more than a smile and a few scratches behind the kit's ears, it still bugged him greatly. He understood that he was jealous of the kit getting her attention even if he logically shouldn't be. After all, it wasn't like the kit would be tagging along on their journey.

Eevee paused at his last thought. When had it become 'their' journey? Probably about the same time as he began to accept the fact that Vali was diffrent from his former trainer. But it wasn't their journey, he couldn't claim that. While she was his trainer for now, he still had a few months left before he could make the decision to stay on as a member of her team permanently. A big part of his still resisted the idea of being anyone's pokemon even if it was becoming smaller with each moment he spent around Vali and her team. Could he truly become a part of the team?

Vali looked at him and smiled as she patted the seat beside her. Eevee hesitated before jumping up beside her and relaxed as she began to pet him. He supposed that he could especially since they wouldn't be a 'team'. If Vali was telling the truth, they would be a family which meant pack and that was something he could get behind. Especially if it meant being able to bask in the warmth coming off of her that helped chase away his nightmares and brought him a sense of peace.

* * *

Vali looked over the saddle a week and a half later with a pleased smile. The saddle was a dark red with little black swirls printed on it. Celina's name was sown into the saddle which was exactly what she wanted. She lifted it up to test the weight and found that it barely weighed a pound. Looking at Jacob, she asked, "Light weight to keep it from affecting her balance or slowing her down too much, right?"

"Yup especially since this is her first saddle," Jacob confirmed her thoughts, "Just make sure you don't go attempting to fly to another region on her back unless it's Johto,"

"Will do," Vali wouldn't risk Celina's life just to avoid paying for a boat, airplane, or Balloon to another region, "Let's do a final check with Celina then talk payment,"

The final check was merely a formality with how many times Jacob had her bring Celina to do various checks. Soon enough, Vali was handing over 3,895 poke with an extra 105 poke for the fully stocked saddle care kit plus manual. The kit was designed to fit into the same storage device as the saddle which was nice as it kept her bag relatively uncrowded.

* * *

Vali and Celina took the saddle out for a spin which quickly made both of them quite happy with the purchase. Celina could do as many tricks as she wanted without worrying about her trainers safety outside of the normal. Vali could enjoy just how fast and skilled Celina was in the air without worrying about falling to her death if she lost her grip. As a result, the two didn't leave the sky until Celina was exhausted. Despite the painful cramps in her legs and how windburned her face was, she couldn't stop grinning due to just how light she felt.

If there was one thing Vali knew, it was that she was born to fly.

* * *

Before Zaria left, they had a one-on-one battle between Balto and Zorua. Steven was acting as their referee, "Are you guys ready?"

"Yup!" They answered.

"Then begin!" Steven threw down his hand.

"Balto, let's start off with Flame Wheel!" Vali ordered as soon as Steven spoke.

Zaria smirked as she called out, "Fake Tears then Dark Pulse!"

Zorua began to cry causing Balto to falter a bit though he still plowed on earning a yelp of pain as the tricky fox pokemon was sent flying a bit. Zorua picked himself up as Balto came out of his Flame Wheel and released a beam of dark energy surrounded by dark purple rings. Balto dodged it using Dig and popped up behind Zorua with an Iron Tail. Zorua with Payback earning a yelp of pain from Balto. Balto used Reversal which caused quite a bit of damage due to the damage inflicted by Payback and the natural weakness dark-types have to fighting-type moves. Vali called out, "Balto, Morning Sun!"

Balto's fur gained a golden glow as Morning Sun began to work its magic. Zaria cursed as Zorua pushed himself to his paws with a growl as he favored his left front paw showing that his right had gotten hurt at some point during the bout. Zaria called out, "Zorua, can you continue?" Zorua barked with a nod and focused on Balto with a glare, "Alright, use Double Team then Payback!"

"Into the ground Balto, we're playing wack-a-chu," Vali had them practice this maneuver as much as possible while Pikachu was still with them.

Pikachu would use Double Team as much as possible and her pokemon would attempt to find the real one as quickly as possible without being knocked out by the attacking electric-type. It would probably mean the difference between winning and losing once she reached the League Conference. While Pikachu remained the only pokemon on her team to know Double Team at the moment, it didn't mean they were going to stop practicing the technique whenever possible. Balto disappeared into the hole he'd dug earlier causing Zaria to grimace. It didn't take long for Balto to begin taking pot-shots at Zorua though he missed half the time. Between his earlier injuries and his inability to properly dodge, Zorua fainted before Balto's stamina gave out. Zaria groaned, "Where on earth did you come up with that?"

"I wanted my pokemon to be able to compete against it before they learned how to use it," Vali explained earning a sigh, "Thanks for teaching Pikachu,"

Zaria rolled her eyes, "Let's get these two to the pokemon center, I don't know about you, but I think Zorua needs it."

Vali winced a bit, "Sorry about that."

"Hey, I challenged you to the battle and it showed us that we have a lot to work on especially if we're going to be proper rivals," Zaria shrugged lightly, "Besides, Zorua's going to be motivated to train harder and will probably kick your puppies ass next time we battle,"

"Maybe, maybe not," Vali said as they began making their way to the pokemon center, "By the way, where are you headed next?"

"I'm going to Lavender Town rather than Fuchsia to train up a bit," Zaria replied earning a surprised look, "I'm going to try facing Sabrina before Koga. My Dad also wants to meet up and he'll be coming to Lavender Town to help with the population check the League does on the ghost-types. I figure that I might as well earn a bit of extra money helping out since they need all the dark-type pokemon they can get to help out,"

"Maybe you can show your dad the badges you've won so far and see if that convinces him to keep your mom from trying to keep you home?" Vali suggested after a moment.

Zaria nodded slowly, "Why not? It's not like I have anything to lose."

"Tell me if you end up finding anything interesting," Vali wanted to go to Lavender Town at some point if only to see if the rumors about ghost-types from other regions being seen in the tower were true.

"Sure, sure," Zaria agreed as they reached the pokemon center.

* * *

Zaria left after Vali gifted her with the small album of photo's that she'd taken of her rival's gym battle as well as a few photo's that included her newer team members. Zaria headed through Route 7 which was the fastest way to get to Lavender Town from Celadon. Once Zaria was on her way, Steven and Vali returned to the pokemon center to continue training their teams for the gym battle ahead of them. With the increase of focus on them, Vali's pokemon managed to master the TM's that she'd given them. Celina managed to learn Agility though it wasn't anywhere near good enough to use during a battle though that likely wouldn't change for awhile due to how much strain it placed on her body with each use. Celina's Agility training would have to take place at the end of their training for the day if only to ensure she had a good night's sleep to recover. Of course, she did have to keep her promise and give all of them another TM to learn if they so chose.

Vali ended up giving Smaug Toxic since he needed a non-fire-type offensive move and because he didn't want to learn Protect just yet. Celina was gifted Protect since she needed a defensive move under her wing. Balto was gifted with Sunny Day though Toxic would be next once he got Sunny Day down pat. Arwen was given Protect since it was a useful move. Terra was given Toxic with Protect next on the list. Idril was still working on the Shadow Claw TM that Zaria had let Vali borrow though it wouldn't be long until she got it down which would mean giving her Toxic which would give the Sandshrew a base to learn Poison Sting.

All of them got to work immediately once they'd been gifted their TMs and Vali sat down to watch over the training while she spent time cleaning the shell of her egg. Eevee curled up beside her watching the other pokemon. She spoke as she watched Balto help Celina with Protect since she seemed to be having some difficulty, "I'm glad that I ended up in this world," Eevee looked up at her with confusion in his eyes, "There was nothing like this back in my old one. Animals, even the magical ones, weren't as intelligent or powerful as you guys. Some came close, they were bonded to those with magic and were called familiars since the bond helped boost their intelligence. I had an owl which is a bird that's kind of like a Hoothoot only she was a snowy owl with snow white feathers flecked with black," She smiled sadly, "She was a really smart owl though I'm not sure if she was my familiar," She glanced down at Eevee, "What I mean to say is that despite how bad things can get here, I prefer it here even if I really miss my owl. The bond I have with everyone, even you, is something I never want to go without. I'll never be lonely again so long as I have you guys."

Vali saw Eevee's eyes soften a bit at her words though he was quick to look away from her to focus on the training pokemon. Perhaps she was really getting through to him, she smiled lightly while focusing back on her training pokemon.

* * *

With Vali's usual training schedule in preparation for the gym battle in place, Vali watched her team grow stronger. Balto was becoming even quicker and his fire attacks stronger. Smaug was growing more powerful as his body began to ready itself for evolution which pushed him to perfect all his attacks not just the new ones he'd learned recently. Celina was working hard on perfecting Protect while also working on the basics of Tailwind. Idril was becoming less timid with each battle she faced and more sure of herself which meant that evolution wouldn't be far off though the Sandshrew didn't show any physical change. Arwen seemed to concentrate better as she worked on perfecting her attacks. Terra was gaining more and more control over Ancient Power which meant that she wouldn't have much of a problem using the move when she finally evolved into her Pupitar form. Even Eevee was showing improvement, he could run longer with her and even pushed her to run faster sometimes.

Vali's team wasn't the only one to improve, Steven's Wartortle, Sandshrew, Lileep were improving as well. Wartortle was becoming larger and the fur around his ears seemed to be thinning. Lileep had grown larger and his body had begun to gain a slight green tint to it. Wartortle had become a bit more aggressive, but no where near how aggressive Smaug could be sometimes. He still lost his temper and tended to blast the one that annoyed him with a water gun though thankfully not a full powered one. Sandshrew was becoming a bit larger, his claws longer, and his back was beginning to sprout the tell-tale sign of quills. Lileep had become a bit more reclusive and tended to spend much of his time completely still in areas with high amounts of sunlight. With permission from Steven and Lileep, Vali documented the behaviors of the fossil pokemon with pictures.

As Steven had one of the few successfully revived fossil pokemon currently in existence, the scientific community had a high demand for any information that could be gotten. Vali made sure she took plenty of pictures and wrote detailed notes knowing that any missed information could get any future fossil pokemon hurt. Once Lileep evolved and everything was settled, she would be sending a copy of the information to Professor Oak while she sent the first one home. As Lileep's trainer, Steven would be given a copy while two would be sent to his father in Hoenn. One would stay with his father while the other would go to the fossil research department of Devon Corp. to be used to help further the research. Depending on how things went, the information would be given to the League and various institutes currently attempting to bring fossil pokemon back.

When Steven asked her why she wanted to do something like this despite not wanting to write a research paper, Vali had paused while taking a close up photo of Lileep's slightly scaled neck before saying, "Back in my old world, we had things called dinosaurs that went extinct and became fossils. Unlike in this world, the technology hadn't advanced enough to bring them back," She smiled a bit as her cheeks flushed, "I also want my own Amaura and to be able to see it become an Aurorus. I mean isn't it every little kids dream to be able to say they've actually ridden on the back of a dinosaur?"

* * *

The day before their gym battles saw Steven and Vali taking their teams out for some much needed relaxation. Smaug wanted to continue training since he was so close to evolving, but Vali put her foot down. Pending evolution or not, he needed to rest unless he wanted to be left out of the gym battle tomorrow. As much as it pissed him off, he knew better than to argue since she could be even more stubborn than a Charizard when it came to protecting their territory. Forcing himself to calm down, he admitted that training so hard without a break was exhausting and gym battles were difficult enough when you were healthy. As much as he may want to evolve, he understood that being in the best health possible before the fact was best. With how patient she was despite how much he had to have pissed her off since he started feeling his final evolution coming along, he found him respecting Vali even more than before.

When night fell and they began to retire for the night, Smaug was surprised when Vali took him out on the balcony of the pokemon center. He looked at her curiously as she patted the seat next to her. He took the seat as she stared up at the sky, "Smaug," she was staring at the moon which floated above them, "You're going to evolving really soon. Likely during tomorrow's battle," Smaug nodded while wondering where she was going with this, "I'm happy that I've managed to help you reach this point. You're going to be an amazing Charizard," Smaug's chest puffed up and he smirked, "But, what will happen after you evolve?" Smaug's chest deflated and he looked at her in confusion, "Have you ever thought of what would happen after you finally evolve into a Charizard? What do you want to do after that?" No, he hadn't really thought about it, "You've never really thought about it, have you?" She looked down at him and he nodded, "You already know that I don't exactly know what I want to do in my life outside of becoming a fire-type master and making a family with everyone," He'd known that since their first day together when she admitted as much, "The thing is that I know you'll be a bit lost after you evolve. I want you to know that no matter what, I'll be there for you," He smiled and hugged her letting out a soft purr, "Our family will be there for you too like families are supposed to," She hugged him lightly and laid her head on his, "Just like I know you'll be there for us too, Smaug."

Smaug closed his eyes and embraced the warmth his trainer was giving off. No matter what happened from now on, he would always be a member of this family, pack, flock, herd, etc. He promised himself that nothing would ever change that.

* * *

Vali watched Steven's match which saw Erika bringing out a Tangrowth, Vileploom, and a Victreebel. Since Steven had been a trainer longer than her and had participated in the Hoenn League more than once, the gym leaders didn't limit themselves as much. They didn't use members of their real team, but they used pokemon close to that level in order to properly test him. While she'd known that before hand, it only sunk in now because of just how high level the battle was. The Exeggutor used to create the barriers around the battlefield were working over time due to just how powerful the attacks being tossed around were. As she watched the battle, she realized that this was her first true glance into high level battles.

While Steven's pokemon were immune to poison-type moves and a majority of them barely felt anything from grass-type moves, Erika still managed to put up a damn good showing. She didn't let anything stop her from pushing Steven's pokemon to their limits. She forced him to work for the win ensuring that the steel-type master-in-training gained respect for her. Vali knew that she wasn't ready to face Erika at the same level as Steven was and it would be awhile before she reached that point. It was a daunting thought, but she didn't let that discourage her. If anything, it made her excited at the prospect of going up against Erika using her full power one day with her team.

Steven was smiling as they left the gym to get his pokemon seen to. They were definitely going to be feeling the results of that battle for awhile. He looked at Vali as she said, "That was my first real glimpse at what the higher level battles hold for me, wasn't it?"

Steven nodded looking pleased with himself, "Yes though that doesn't compare to a battle between champions."

"I want to be able to see it," Vali told him earning a curious look, "I want to be able to watch you become a champion,"

"I'll make sure to save you a ticket," Steven promised her as a grin formed on his face, "I promise,"

"I'm going to hold you to that," Vali warned him earning a laugh, "Let's hurry up back to the pokemon center, I think Metagross, Skarmory, and Aggron really want to get their injuries taken care of,"

* * *

Erika smiled when Vali stood across from her, "Looks like it's time for that gym battle of yours, huh?"

"Yeah and the battle you had with Steven earlier really fired me up," Vali grinned at her, "I look forward to seeing how my team does against yours,"

"Then let's begin," Erika said while gesturing to the referee.

The referee began the usual announcement, "This is a three on three battle between Gym Leader Erika of Celadon City and Challenger Valkyrie Potter of Pallet Town. Only the Challenger may make any substitutions. Trainers, release your first pokemon!"

Erika released a Victreebel as Vali called out, "Come out and battle with me, my friend!"

Arwen pawed at the ground when she appeared. Erika let out an appreciative whistle, "Your Ponyta looks beautiful. Did you just groom her?"

"Yesterday, I gave her a thorough cleaning as a reward for her hard work during training," Vali answered as Arwen focused on her opponent, "Thanks for noticing,"

The referee called out, "Begin!"

"Arwen, Flame Wheel!" Vali eyed the Victreebel carefully.

It was definitely experienced though not as much as the one Steven had faced earlier. If she had to guess, it had probably evolved somewhere in the last month maybe a few days before the month began. Either way, Arwen had a chance to win if they worked carefully and made sure to burn any powder moves before they could take effect. Erika smiled as she called out, "Dodge and use Growth."

"Keep going with Flame Wheel!" Vali ordered as Victreebel got out of the way.

Arwen shifted her trajectory and came back around. She managed to slam into Victreebel as the Flycatcher pokemon gained a green glow to it. Victreebel cried out in pain as it was burned by the flames coiling around Arwen's body and sent stumbling away as it patted out the flames with its vines. Burn marks covered its body where the flames had hit it, it winced as the burns gained a red glow for a few seconds showing that the Victreebel had been burned by the attack. That meant Victreebel was on a time limit, Arwen's chances of winning had increased. Arwen let go of Flame Wheel to spit an Ember attack at Victreebel. Victreebel dodged it with a hiss as Erika called out, "Victreebel, use Razor Leaf to keep Ponyta back then Ingrain."

"Arwen, Flame Wheel. Do your best to avoid the Razor Leaf!" Vali ordered while wishing Arwen knew a move that could block the sharp leaves.

While Protect could do that, Arwen was still shaky on using the move and it definitely wasn't anywhere close to ready for a gym battle. Victreebel flung out a flurry of razor sharp leaves as Arwen reared and rushed forward as flames coated her body once more. Arwen managed to dodge a good bit of the leaves, but some managed to hit her though the Ponyta seemed to ignore the pain caused by the wounds the leaves created. The bottom of Victreebel's body had released a bunch of roots that sank into the ground and gained a green glow as the nutrients in the soil were pulled into its body to heal some of the damage done so far. Once she broke through the leaves, Arwen slammed into Victreebel managing to snap some of the roots in the process. Victreebel cried out and retaliated with a rather brutal looking Vine Whip that created an audible cracking sound as Arwen was sent skidding away. Erika called out, "Use Sunny Day!"

Vali looked at Erika carefully as she heard that order. Did Erika teach her Victreebel Solar Beam or was she preparing the room for one of her other pokemon? She wouldn't know until the gym leader did something. Looking at Arwen as the Ponyta shook off the Vine Whip, she called out, "Arwen, High Horsepower!

Arwen rushed towards Victreebel with a neigh as a orangish brown aura began to coat her body. Victreebel released a glowing orb of reddish orange light that flew into the sky as Arwen charged towards the grass/poison-type. Immediatly once it hit the roof of the green-house like area, Vali could feel the heat in the area surge as the sun seemed to beat harshly onto those below. As Arwen reached Victreebel, she twisted around before kicking Victreebel right between the eyes with a glowing hoof. Victreebel was ripped from its roots due to the power behind Arwen's legs and sent flying into one of the nearby trees. Arwen turned around and released a powerful steam of Embers which slammed into the Flycatcher pokemon. Victreebel cried out as it was hit and burned even further. When Arwen stopped the onslaught, Victreebel slid down the tree and shakily stood up. The scent of burned plant-matter reached her nose and she grimaced a bit as Erika called out, "Victreebel, can you continue?" Victreebel let out a shaky screech and took a step forward, "Use Magical Leaf then Poison Powder."

"Arwen, try to block the leaves with Ember," Vali called out not quite knowing how to protect against that move since none of the grass-type pokemon she'd met while in Celadon knew the move, "Use Flame Wheel if they get too close and try to knock out Victreebel without getting poisoned,"

As Victreebel reared back to release a wave of glowing green leaves that rushed towards Arwen, Arwen released a stream of Embers similar to the one Smaug created before he finally learned Flamethrower. Arwen managed to block some of the leaves, but many of them managed to get past the Ember attack. Arwen used Flame Wheel which burned away some of the leaves as they slammed into the Ponyta. Arwen rushed past the stream of leaves just as Victreebel released a cloud of poisonous purple powder. The powder made a sizzling sound as it impacted Arwen's cloak of flames making Vali hope that it hadn't gotten to Arwen as the Ponyta slammed into Victreebel once more. Victreebel cried out as it was sent tumbling back. It tried pushing itself up only to pass out. Erika returned Victreebel as Arwen let go of the cloak, "Not bad, Vali though I'm surprised you didn't use more attacks."

"Arwen's move pool is admittedly limited," Vali replied as Arwen shivered and a purple aura surrounded her, "I thought the fire had burned it all,"

"Looks like your on a time-limit," Erika commented as she prepped her next pokeball.

Vali grabbed Arwen's pokeball, "Arwen," Arwen looked at her, "I'm returning you. I don't want you to suffer more than you have to," Arwen nodded and she returned the Ponyta, "Good job, Arwen."

Arwen's pokeball warmed up in her hand and vibrated a little before returning to it's inert state. Vali placed the pokeball in it's usual place as Erika said, "I'm a bit surprised you chose to return her."

"Why let the poison get worse when I don't have to?" Vali replied as Erika released her Tangela.

"True enough," Erika nodded as Vali palmed Celina's pokeball.

Vali released Celina as she called out, "Come out and battle with me, my friend!" Celina appeared with a defiant screech only to pause at the sight of Tangela and looked towards her for answers, "That's a Tangela, Celina. They're a grass-type that's a bit rare," Celina nodded slowly looking a bit unsure, "Don't let its appearance fool you, they're good battlers in the hands of a master," Celina bobbed her head firmly and glared at Tangela, "Celina, into the air. I don't want to take too many risks."

Celina shot into the air as Erika commented, "This should be interesting," Erika looked calmly up at Celina, "Tangela, be a dear and use Leaf Storm then Double Team."

"Celina, dodge the leaves as best you can with Aerial Ace and use Swift to block what you can't dodge," Vali needed to gauge how powerful Tangela was in order to come up with a proper strategy.

Tangela let out a happy gurgle as it called up a storm of razor sharp leaves that it sent towards Celina. Celina dodged the leaves as the whitish grey glow coated her body. Tangela created over ten copies of itself as Celina used Swift to get rid of the leaves that got to close to her. Some of the star-shaped energy projectiles ended up hitting the copies causing them to vanish. Celina continued to use Swift as she swept over the copies only to get a Vine Whip to the back as Tangela launched itself upwards to hit the Pidgeot. Celina let out a shriek of anger and used Steel Wing as she swept back around. Tangela was hit by the steel-coated wing and was sent towards the ground. Tangela jumped up quickly showing that the rumors about it's thick coating of vines creating a cushion against attacks was true. Erika smiled as Tangela created more copies of itself, "Tangela use Energy Ball."

"Celina, dodge and use Swift," Vali would have to keep up a rather large amount of pressure on Tangela if she wanted to win, "Keep up the pressure. Use Air Slash once you find the real one,"

Celina let out a trill and began using Swift as Tangela sent it's Energy Ball attack towards the flying-type. Celina managed to destroy the real Energy Ball with Swift and began destroying the copies of Tangela. Again the real Tangela tried to hit Celina with a Vine Whip only it came in from the right side, Celina managed to dodge the attack for the most part and used Air Slash. The sharp blades of air managed to hit Tangela hard causing it to slam into the battlefield. It cried out in actual pain as some of it's vines were sliced open causing a bit of green liquid to spill out. Tangela got up as Celina released another round of Swift. Tangela dodged some of the stars, but couldn't dodge all of them causing it to be sent skidding back. As Celina wheeled around for another attack, Tangela used Leaf Storm causing the Pidgeot to falter a bit as she used Gust to give herself time to create a proper defense. When the storm finished, Tangela had created more copies of itself and used Ingrain. Erika called out, "Tangela, use Energy Ball and Vine Whip!"

"Celina, Aerial Ace to dodge the Energy Ball and Air Slash to keep back that Vine Whip," Vali ordered as a plan began to use, "When you can, use Feather Dance," She lowered her voice knowing that Celina's keen ears would be able to hear her, "Under the cover of Feather Dance, use Steel Wing and Air Slash. Try to get rid of those roots anchoring it to the ground,"

Celina trilled as she got to work dodging the Energy balls heading towards her with Aerial Ace. The vines Tangela aimed towards Celina were shredded with Air Slash causing the little pokemon to cry out in pain. While the pain wasn't as bad as it would be for some pokemon due to a lack of proper nerve endings, it still hurt Tangela enough to stun it allowing Celina to get close enough to use Feather Dance. The loose feathers all over Celina's body began to rain down on Tangela blocking the odd pokemon's sight. Celina got in close using Aerial Ace and slammed into Tangela with Steel Wing which got rid of some roots. The Air Slash that slammed into Tangela next left shredded all but a few which were hanging on by what looked like a thread. Tangela managed to look past the pain and nail Celina with a Constrict followed by Mega Drain. Celina cried out as her energy began to disappear while Tangela began to recover from Celina's newest assault. Celina used Swift point blank causing Tangela to release her and she put some distance between them. Celina panted heavily and looked a bit worn though no where near enough for Vali to think she needed to pull the Pidgeot from battle.

Erika spoke as Celina began to use Gust, "Not a bad combination, it's definitely the first time someone's used that against me since I became a gym leader."

"Tangela's pretty good at enduring pain," Vali replied as Celina used Swift again and Tangela retaliated with Leaf Storm.

"It helps that they don't feel it like we do," Erika shrugged lightly as Celina used Air Slash again and Vali felt the sunlight begin to dim, "Tangela use Sunny Day,"

The battle continued along the same vein for awhile before Tangela managed to knock Celina out with a well aimed Vine Whip. Tangela was worn out and wouldn't last much longer though it would likely try to get in a few good hits before passing out. Vali returned Celina while thanking her for the effort and called out Smaug, "Come out and battle with me, my friend!" Smaug appeared and looked at his worn out opponent with a glare, "Smaug, Tangela managed to take out Celina. We still have one more pokemon after this, so we need to end it quickly," Smaug nodded as spat out a tongue of flame, "Use Smokescreen and Ember," Smaug glanced at her for that last one even as he began spitting out smoke and she spoke softly enough that only he could hear her, "I don't want her to know that you can use that just yet," Smaug nodded in understanding, "Don't let up. Be careful and avoid getting too close."

Smaug inclined his head before disappearing into the smoke. With how worn out it was, Vali doubted that Tangela would last for much longer. She was proven right moments later when the smoke clouds faded to reveal a passed out Tangela with Smaug standing near him. Smaug was rubbing his muzzle showing that Tangela had gotten him at least once with a Vine Whip. Erika blinked slightly before smiling, "Not bad though it looks like your Charmeleon is on the cusp of evolution. Do you really think this is safe?"

"It'll be fine. I know that he can take it," Vali smiled as Smaug smirked at her, "Now, shall we continue?"

Erika released a Gloom causing Smaug to grimace a bit, "Gloom, be a dear and use Sweet Scent."

Gloom released waves of pinkish powder that floated over the battlefield. Vali sniffed lightly and could immediately see why a pokemon would get distracted since the scent reminded her of treacle tart. Smaug gained a slight flush to his scales as he sniffed the air. He shook his head after a few moments and glared at Gloom prompting her to order, "Let's make it easier to concentrate, Smokescreen and make it thick."

Vali used her scarf to cover her nose and mouth before pulling on her goggles which had seen a lot of use since she started flying with Celina. Smaug disappeared into the thick cloud of smoke as Erika called out, "This is quite interesting, I don't think I've seen anyone really use smokescreen before."

"It's a useful move," Vali commented as she heard the telltale cry of pain caused by Smaug hitting someone with Metal Claw.

"Gloom, use Stun Spore and Sleep Powder!" Erika called out.

"Smaug, burn everything with Flamethrower," Powder attacks were annoying especially sleep and poison.

Erika gasped at her order while a bright gout of flame pierced through the haze of black smoke, "You taught him Flamethrower?"

"What can I say? Smaug's a very determined Charmeleon," Vali shrugged lightly as Smaug continued his earlier assault.

* * *

Smaug could feel his evolutionary energy surging with each hit either given or taken. Each breath he took to either renew the smoke or get enough air to launch his fire attacks, it seemed to fill his lung. The beat of his heart was echoed by the pulse of energy that was so close to becoming his. Soon enough, the energy would overtake his entire being and he would become a master of the sky and fire just as his mother had been. A grunt left him as a glowing green orb slammed into his chest and sent him skidding back. Baring his fangs at the grass/poison-type that had sent it towards him, he released a gout of flames before thickening the cover of smoke. While hiding within the cover of smoke had always bugged him a bit due to his pride, he could appreciate Vali's thinking as it allowed him to get the drop on his prey.

As Smaug whittled down his opponents health with each successful hit, he couldn't help, but feel a bit disappointed. Sure, it was a battle, but it didn't push him to his limits. A grunt of pain followed by the feeling of his energy being drained hit him as he was sent skidding back again. He looked at the Gloom and realized it had managed to drain his energy with a punch. A smirk appeared on his maw as he realized that it wasn't quite as pathetic as he'd begun to think it was. Increasing the smoke, he heard Vali call out, "End it, Smaug!"

Smaug wondered why Vali sounded a bit panicked until he couldn't see his opponent anymore. Where had it gon-

Smaug's chest hurt and his head was pounding as he slowly began to push himself up. He tasted copper at the back of his mouth and could tell one of his fangs was loose. What had hit him? Smaug grunted a bit as he pushed himself up and heard the other trainer, Erika, saying, "I'm surprised. A Solar Beam from one of my Gloom is usually enough to knock out most pokemon regardless of their typing."

"Smaug, are you alright?" Vali asked earning a nod as he turned to glare at the Gloom that had managed to hit him, "Try to knock it out,"

Smaug snorted and released another gout of smoke before disappearing into it. The area that the Solar Beam had hit hurt quite a bit and he was having a little trouble breathing. Growling a bit as he rubbed his chest, he focused on covering the area completely in smoke. He didn't need that gloom getting enough sunlight to hit him with that again. When he felt it was enough, he began his onslaught once more. This time, he paid attention to the Gloom and made sure to dodge any punches it tried to hit him with. Eventually, he managed to make it faint and felt the evolutionary energy that had been out of his grasp finally cover his form.

A roar left him as pain filled his entire body in a way he'd never felt before. The small amount of pain he'd felt during his evolution from Charmander to Charmeleon was nothing on this. He was growing too big, too quickly causing the pain to worsen each moment that passed. He could feel his inner flame grow stronger with each passing second as his body changed He was becoming more powerful than anything he'd ever imagined. When the energy finally faded, he felt exhausted, but pleased with himself. Finally, he'd become a lord of the sky and flame!

"Smaug," He slowly turned towards the sound of Vail's voice and opened his eyes to see her staring at him with awe, "You look amazing," She walked slowly towards him, "Are you alright?"

Smaug nodded slowly staring at his trainer feeling instincts he'd never felt before rise up. Did he really need a trainer now that he'd evolved? Sure, Vali had helped him become this strong and he'd always be thankful. But did he need her anymore? He inwardly growled and pushed those thoughts down as memories filled his mind. Vali wasn't just his trainer, but part of his family along with the others. She had taken care of him, raised him, taught him, and even protected him. Why would he ever want to leave her? Just because he had new instincts that demanded he never submit to another, it didn't mean anything especially when Vali was his equal. While she may be human, she bore a burning inner flame in her heart and never demanded that he submit to her outside of when he was being an idiot.

Smaug looked into Vali's eyes as she reached him and smiled as he leaned down to nuzzle her cheek. He would keep that promise he'd made to himself last night. Vali hugged him with a grin, "I'm so proud of you, Smaug."

* * *

After returning Smaug once she made sure he was alright, Vali received her fourth gym badge and grinned as Erika said, "Congratulations, Vali. Both on the win and on the evolution."

"Thank you for giving me this chance, Erika," Vali told the gym leader with a bright grin as she clutched the gym badge in her hand, "I hope that once my team and I finish gathering our gym badges that you'd be up for another battle if we have time,"

Erika smiled lightly, "I'd be happy to though I think you should probably hurry to pokemon center."

"Right," Vali nodded lightly, "Thanks again, Erika!"

With that, Vali met up with Steven and they began making their way out of the gym. She paused at the lobby when a girl around the same age as her complained to the girl at the front desk, "I won't be able to battle inside if the whole place smells like this."

"I'm sorry, but the outdoors battling area is no where near complete," The Gym Trainer manning the desk informed the girl, "It won't be complete for another month. Either you'll have to battle in the gym like everyone else or wait until the outside battlefield is complete,"

The girl sneered at the Gym Trainer, "You'll be hearing from the League!"

With that, the girl stormed out and Vali asked, "What was that about?"

"That was one of the trainers that have a scent based allergy or some other form of condition that makes battling inside the gym difficult for them if not impossible in some cases," The Gym Trainer explained as she shuffled the papers on her desk, "An outdoors battlefield is being constructed as we speak, but it is taking a while due to the League workers trying to ensure the quality of it is on par with the one inside the gym. Because of this, trainers like that one have been attempting to lodge complaints about it with the League who are well aware of the problem,"

"Shouldn't there already be an outdoors battlefield?" Vali remembered reading that every gym had one though most rarely used them since the inside ones were usually enough.

"Unfortunately in the two years before Miss Erika took over, Mister Thomas, Miss Erika's grandfather, let the outdoors battlefield fall into disarray," The Gym Trainer answered with a sigh, "Due to the weather we've had over the last few years, it's left the outdoors battlefield completely trashed and unsalvageable resulting in a new one having to be reconstructed," She shook her head, "That doesn't even cover the fact that a family of Bulbasaur have taken it over,"

Vali felt bad for Erika having to deal with this kind of thing, "Well, I hope the League doesn't get angry at Erika since it really isn't her fault."

The Gym Trainer smiled at Vali, "Thank you. Are either of you going to schedule a rematch?"

"No, we won our battles," Steven answered as they began to head to the door, "Thanks for asking though,"

* * *

Smaug and Arwen ended up stuck in Nurse Joy's care for three days due to the fact both of them had poison in their system. Despite Smaug burning away almost all the poison, a few particles managed to get into his lungs. While it wasn't that dangerous given his high body temperature, the fact he'd just recently evolved made Nurse Joy leery of letting Smaug out of her care until she could be sure the poison didn't have a bad effect on his evolution. Nurse Joy wanted to watch over Arwen since this was the Ponyta's first real exposure to poison. Celina spent a day with Nurse Joy and was banned from training for two days to fully recover much to the Pidgeot's ire. Of course, Celina wouldn't be so annoyed if it weren't for the fact she wasn't allowed to fly with Vali.

Vali was a bit annoyed as well, but she wasn't about to disobey Nurse Joy. Despite the pink hair, the entire Joy family could be scary especially when it came to stupid trainers not keeping their pokemon's health in mind. Instead of trying to argue against the pink haired woman, she handed over the rest of her pokemon to get checked over while she spent time focusing on the egg she'd gotten from Ninetales. Even Eevee ended up in Nurse Joy's care, she didn't want to take any chances with anyone.

Steven had already done the same when they'd returned from their gym battle. While Vali was cleaning the already clean egg shell, they spent time discussing where to travel to next. Fuchsia was high on the list along with the Safari Zone which boasted quite a few pokemon. While the idea of adding to her team wasn't something she really focused on, she would admit that visiting it would be fun if only for the opportunity to take good pictures. Steven wanted to check out just what kind of pokemon were there and maybe find something he wouldn't normally find in Kanto since he hadn't really caught any new pokemon outside of his Sandshrew. Steven wanted to check out the Kanto Power Plant to catch a Magnemite or two ever since he'd spoke with Lt. Surge. Vali just wanted to check it out and see if she could take any interesting pictures. After that, they'd go to Lavender Town where Vali was hoping she might catch a ghost-type.

While she might not be big on adding to her team, Vali honestly wanted a ghost-type since they were dead useful and because it would give her a defense against psychics. With what happened in Saffron the first time, she really didn't want to risk something like that happening again. There was also the fact that ghost-types were interesting, the whole thing about them being former humans/pokemon that had died really made her wonder just how true it was. Other than that, she knew that most ghost-types were pranksters which she could appreciate. If for nothing else, she wanted a ghost-type to help her prank Sirius the next time he pissed her off.

* * *

Professor Oak smiled at her as she finished explaining what had happened since the last time they'd spoken, "That's wonderful news, Vali! I didn't expect you to get Smaug to evolve so soon since most trainers put it off until the first year to ensure they have a strong enough bond to prevent any accidents."

"That's because they don't have a small pool of pokemon like me and don't understand just how prideful fire-types can be," Vali snorted softly, "Anyway, did you get the information I sent you?"

"Yes, I did," Professor Oak shuffled around something in the desk he was sitting at before pulling out the binder of stuff she'd sent him, "You're very thorough when you want to be,"

Vali flushed a bit, "Considering the fact that I'm really hoping I might one day be able to raise an Amaura, I figured that being thorough would be the best course of action."

Professor Oak chuckled, "Well, I can tell you that this will definitely help the research along. I'm going to be sending a copy of it to Blaine since he's the leading authority on Fossil Research in Kanto."

"Really?" Vali thought he might add somethings to it before he did that.

Professor Oak nodded as he leaned back into his seat, "Of course, your notes are very well written and rarely go off topic. You ensure that your personal opinion and theories are separated from the actual information. While you could be a bit more concise in some places, it doesn't really take away from the information you've presented," Professor Oak actually looked proud, "The pictures you sent as well as the pages of your own personal theories made everything fairly clear. It makes me eager to see what else you can do."

Vali remembered her discussion with Zaria prompting her to ask, "Professor, do you think I might be able to become one of your data collectors? Not right now, but eventually?"

Professor Oak blinked a bit in surprise before nodding, "I don't see why not, but what brought this on?"

"Before Zaria left, we ended up having an interesting conversation," Vali answered as she looked at her hands, "I don't see myself getting a regular job if I fail to become an Elite Four or an ACE. I can't see myself being happy with a desk job or something like that. Don't get me wrong, I know that some people would be happy doing that, but I just can't see that kind of future for myself. If I become one of your data collectors, it would mean going traveling wherever I wish and whenever I wish unless you needed me to do something. Combined with becoming a Photographer, I think that would be the kind of future I want since it would allow me to keep battling with my pokemon, meeting new people, and discovering parts of the world I've never been too before," She flushed a bit as she spoke, "I love the idea of being able to wander as I wish rather than just settle down somewhere. Eventually, I'd like to settle down with someone, but that's years in the future,"

Professor Oak grinned at her, "You sound a lot like someone I knew back when I was a young boy going on my own journey," She looked at him in surprise, "That actually reminds me of something I've been wanting to talk with you about."

"Is something wrong?" Vali asked him while hoping everyone was fine back in Pallet.

"Not at all," Professor Oak shook his head, "On the contrary, I think this is a great opportunity for you," She looked at him in confusion, "How would you like to become a data collector now?"

Holy mother of Mew, Vali hadn't thought that this kind of thing would happen when she talked to him today. Pushing away her shock, she asked, "Really, Professor?"

"I don't see why not. Of course, you wouldn't be acting as my usual data collectors do since you're still on your first journey and not sixteen just yet," Professor Oak began to explain what he wanted her to do, "I want you to take pictures of the pokemon you come across, the areas you come across, anything that strikes you as odd, and the like. Simple things that you would probably do anyway. I want you to continue writing those journals of yours and sending me the information at each city you come across that has post office only this time adding copies of the photos,"

Vali thought about it carefully before nodding, "I can do that pretty easily."

"In exchange, I'll put money in your account to pay for the copies of the photos you send me, journals, writing utensils, and expenses such as a new camera if your current one breaks," Professor Oak continued earning a nod from her since it made sense and was a relief since cameras could be expensive, "I will also pay you around 1,000 poke per the journal you send me and more if it helps me with something I'm currently researching. You'll also get a percentage of the money I get from the League each time I publish something that you helped research like with all of my data collectors,"

That wasn't a bad exchange and it would help with her pokemon's upkeep which was going to be harder now that two of her pokemon had evolved into their final forms, Vali nodded lightly, "I think I'll take you up on that offer, Professor."

"I'm glad," Professor Oak smiled at her, "This also means that once you get your eighth gym badge, I can increase your capture limit to ten,"

"Seriously?" Vali would be able to have all her pokemon with her if that was true and room for at least two more once the egg hatched.

Professor Oak nodded, "Of course, it'll increase to twelve if you place high enough in the League conference. I know you won't abuse the privilege like some trainers might."

"I'm not complaining, but why, Professor?" Vali asked him unable to believe that she might be able to have all her pokemon traveling with her again.

"For my data collectors, it's to help carry around any equipment and necessary items while also providing ample protection while they're in the field," Professor Oak explained which was beginning to make sense, "It's also to ensure they have at least one flying type capable of flying to my lab to deliver physical copies of any data when a post office is too far away," Professor Oak smiled a bit in amusement, "Of course, my data collectors are usually over sixteen and have collected the minimum of eight badges in their home region,"

Vali relaxed a bit, "Thank you for this opportunity, Professor. I'll do my best to insure you won't regret this."

"I know you will," Professor Oak said as a crash sounded followed by cursing and laughter that had to have come from the two little terrors she knew very well.

"Looks like Ash and Gary are up to their usual tricks," Vali commented earning an eye roll, "Tell them I said 'hi' and make sure Delia knows I'll be calling tomorrow,"

"I will," Professor Oak's eye brow twitched as a shriek sounded, "Those boys,"

"Have fun, Professor," Vali told him before the connection cut off.

* * *

"That sounds fairly easy considering the fact you're already doing so," Steven commented when she finished telling him about the Professor's offer, "It's definitely more than what most Rookie trainers end up doing,"

"I'm not exactly normal and Professor Oak knows me well enough to know that I'll make sure he won't regret it," Vali replied as she sat down to eat her dinner, "I wasn't planning on asking him about it just yet, but somehow we ended up discussing it when I asked about the information I sent to him about how Lileep is changing in preparation of his evolution,"

"And he was going to ask you anyway?" Steven asked as he sat down across from her.

"Mhmm," Vali confirmed as she took a bite of her stew.

Steven shook his head lightly, "It says a lot about your luck as a pokemon trainer to get offers like this during your first year."

Vali hummed lightly as a thought occurred to her, "You know it wouldn't surprise me if every time someone becomes a trainer that Arceus flips a coin or something to decide their future. One side means a successful trainer and one side means an average one."

Steven blinked before shrugging, "It honestly wouldn't surprise me."

* * *

In the days leading up to their departure from Celadon, Steven and Vali did their usual thing. They made a list of what they had and bought everything save for food which would be saved until the day before they left. With their pokemon being returned to them with a clean bill of health, they wouldn't have to get them checked out by Nurse Joy until the next pokemon center unless they had a spur of the moment battle before they left Celadon. Vali had her egg checked out as a precaution before they left. Nurse Joy returned it to her with a clean bill of health though the woman told her that she would have to keep a careful eye on the pokemon that hatched from it due to the fact it was smaller than normal which she'd already known. As a result of that warning, Nurse Joy gave her a list of things to keep on hand when her egg finally hatched along with advice to have Balto, Arwen, and Smaug curl around the egg when they could to help insure the eggs health.

In preparation for their departure, the traveling partners headed to the booths that marked on entrance to Cycling Road. Since neither of them had a bike nor required one as they had pokemon that could take their weight, they were required to sign a contract stating that they knew the risks of traveling the road and that the League wasn't responsible for any mishaps that may occur. Once that was done, they were given a copy of the contract and a permit to travel the Cycling Road without a bike/motorcycle/scooter/etc. They also had to pay a fee of 500 poke, but that was easily done. After everything had been handed over, they would be allowed to travel the Cycling Road as much as they wanted for a full year.

Vali ended up stocking up a bit further on winter items needed for the journey. She picked up an elemental resistant tent big enough for her pokemon, extra blankets, extra fire making supplies, a few extra water bottles that were able to withstand extreme changed in heat, and a larger sleeping bag which would allow her pokemon save for Celina and Smaug to cuddle with her if they got cold. She picked up a pair of thick Mamoswine hide gloves with Beartic fur lining for when her current gloves either failed or ended up shredded. She also picked up a few breakable packs of instant heat that could last for a couple of hours. While she did have fire-type pokemon, they could get hurt by in a snow storm. She also bought quite a few berries in bulk as well as some vitamins. Once she found everything she needed, she paid for it while finding out that she ate through her cash on hand and had to use at least five thousand poke from her savings. While it was a bit much, everything would last a while and would be needed for when they were outside of civilization when winter hit.

Steven ended up following her lead though he already had a good portion of the things she bought. While it may seem to be a bit much, winter was one of the harshest times a pokemon trainer could be traveling and it was heavily recommended for rookies to spend it in the nearest town. While she was planning on being back in Pallet in time for Christmas, she knew that the precautions they took would be enough besides most rookies didn't have an older trainer traveling with them.

* * *

"So you're leaving Celadon tomorrow?" Delia asked earning a nod as Vali rubbed between Balto's ears, "That makes four badges plus two fully evolved pokemon. You're doing very well for yourself, Vali,"

"Thanks, Delia, but it would have happened without everyone," Vali hugged Balto as he barked, "Since we're taking the Cycling Road and will probably only end up against other trainers, we should be in Fuchsia within the next five days maybe a week if we ended up facing a lot of people,"

"Call me when you arrive," Delia told her earning a nod, "Other than that, how is everyone?"

"They're doing really good. We haven't had many problems outside of Smaug's attitude before he evolved," Vali was glad for that though she knew that the problem pokemon every trainer ended up with would be coming her way soon since Eevee didn't count, "I think Eevee's trusting me," She looked at Delia curiously, "So how is everyone back in Pallet?"

"Ash and Gary have been getting up to quite a bit of mischief especially since Pidgey has started flying," Delia rolled her eyes as Vali snickered, "Of course, you already know that,"

"Yeah, I was talking to Professor Oak a few days ago and heard some them start something," Vali shook her head lightly as she asked, "Did the Professor tell you about the job offer?"

Delia nodded with a beaming grin, "I'm so proud of you, Vali. I know you'll do well."

Vali flushed a bit as her heart warmed up like it always did when Delia said something like that. She wondered if this was what having a mother felt like. She hugged Balto a bit tighter, "Thanks, I'm going to do my best to get all eight badges since that means I'll be able to travel and train with everyone unless I get more than ten pokemon," She relaxed her grip on Balto, "How's Pikachu?"

"He's doing well. He's actually helping to keep Ash, Pidgey, and Gary out of trouble," Delia sounded fairly relieved, "He's stopped them from bugging the Rhyhorn and Tauros. Of course, he has been giving them little shocks, but it's fairly painless," Delia looked down and smiled, "Would you like to see him? He's been helping around the house,"

"Please," Vali watched as Delia bent down before the woman stood up to reveal Pikachu sitting in her arms, "Hey, Pikachu!" Pikachu smiled at her and jumped from Delia's arms to touch the screen, "I've missed you so much and I know that the others have been missing you too," Balto barked in agreement and she let him get close to the screen to nose at it a bit, "You might've already have heard this, but we won at the Celadon Gym," Pikachu nodded as he sat down, "You've probably also heard about the whole job offer too and let me tell you, I'm going to do my best to see it happen because I want everyone with me," Pikachu let out a soft cry and gave her a grin showing he knew she would do it, "Now, I'm thinking of letting you rest a bit longer. You okay with that?" Pikachu bobbed his head, "Good. I'm going to talk to Professor Oak about maybe placing you on my inactive roster to spend time with everyone once we get to Fuchsia. Not for long, I just want to be able to train everyone together and maybe see about teaching everyone something. I've got a whole slew of new moves for you to learn," Pikachu's cheeks sparked as he let out an eager sounding cry, "Glad to see your happy about it, I know you've probably been training too whenever you aren't spending time with Ash and the others. Thank you for keeping them out of trouble,"

Pikachu inclined his head. Vali spent a bit more time talking to him and Delia before the older woman had to go make lunch for the house's occupants.

* * *

Vali decided to ride Arwen for their first day on the Cycling Road and Steven decided to ride on Metagross' back. She wanted to earn back some of what she spent while in Celadon especially since trainers on the Cycling Road tended to bet over two hundred poke per battle if not more. When they stopped to rest, Smaug, Celina, and Skarmory would work on getting the Charizard used to his new wings. While she didn't doubt that Smaug would get used to his wings soon if only through sheer determination, she knew for a fact that he would probably crash more than a few times in the endeavor which she was duty bound to take pictures of. Say what you will about her, she wanted those pictures to mark Smaug's progress and to keep in case he ever got too big headed.

* * *

Balto was running beside Arwen while Eevee sat in her lap watching the world around them. Vali kept a careful eye on Balto both because she didn't want to tire him too much and because she wanted to make sure she could return him just in case some idiot decided to speed past thus running the risk of hitting the Growlithe. Whenever they stopped for a little while whether to battle someone or to take a break, she was taking pictures of the area and the few pokemon that inhabited it. One of the interesting facts about the Cycling Road was that it contained the heaviest presence of Grimer in Kanto. Most believed it was due to the Cycling Road being man-made and so close to Fuchsia which was the heaviest polluter in Kanto though it was still better than back in her old world, no one had confirmed why it was.

Most of those attempting to become poison-type specialists ventured into the Cycling Road in hopes of catching either a Grimer or their final evolution Muk. Grimer were more prevalent then Muk for the simple reason that the League keeps the far more lethal pokemon from destroying the ecosystem and to keep down the deaths caused by them. Despite the fact that Grimer were fairly common, they were a difficult pokemon to battle especially when you were on the Cycling Road due to the amount of sewer grates on the road itself to prevent it from being flooded during storms. Despite their bodies being made of hardened sludge, they lost the ability to keep their form together when knocked out during a battle and ended up slipping into the sewer through a grate. Even if you had a psychic-type collect the sludge and keep it from falling into the sewer, any pokeball below an Ultra Ball had a lot of trouble capturing the unconscious Grimer due to not recognizing it as a pokemon.

Vali only knew this information since Professor Oak wanted all newbie trainers to understand the risks of raising a Grimer or their rarer evolved form, Muk. While Grimer and Muk could be fairly friendly pokemon when they'd been around humans for awhile, they tended to forget themselves around those they really liked. As a result, the likeliness of being accidentally poisoned or suffocated by your own pokemon increased rather heavily. It took a certain type of trainer to raise one let alone make it a monster in battle without getting yourself killed. She had long since decided against catching either pokemon since a majority of the pokemon she'd planned on catching would be canine in nature. Foul smelling pokemon did not mix well with canine pokemon no matter how much you may try to make it work. And Grimer were foul smelling, she knew that very well since she'd almost passed out that time a trainer managed to catch one and Professor Oak released it in the lab to give it a check up.

Grimer and Muk were interesting pokemon. She could appreciate just how interesting they were from a scientific point of view. They were able to create some of the most potent poisons among poison-type pokemon outside of a select few species. The League and Ranger Union had specific departments that created antidotes for just about any poison in existence using the two as they were able to mimic any poison they came into contact with. They could digest just about anything so trash disposal or hazardous waste disposal was fairly easy. They didn't breed like normal pokemon as there was a lack in any required equipment and no way for them to create an egg. Like the starfish back in her old world, Muk bred by cutting away pieces of themselves which formed into a new Grimer. Despite the lack of two parents being involved, the new Grimer still had the ability to possess an egg move from their parent.

When Steven and Vali came across a group of six Grimer, she returned Balto before dragging her scarf over her nose and mouth. It was a struggle to keep from puking up her lunch due to how foul the scent was or passing out. One Grimer was bad enough, but six was so much worse. Steven looked at her in concern as she had Arwen pause for a few moments to let the fire-type master-in-training take pictures of the Grimer group who were clustered around one of the few Oran Berry trees she'd seen so far. She took a picture of the tree which was slowly wilting as the Grimer clustered around the bottom of the tree. Steven spoke as she finished taking photo's, "Are you alright?"

Vali shook her head as she put away the camera and urged Arwen on once more. Steven followed her lead and they made their way away from the Grimer. Pulling down her scarf once they were far enough away, she said, "Grimer plus a sensitive nose is a very bad combination."

Steven offered her a sympathetic look as they continued moving down the Cycling Road after she released Balto again, "While I can see the benefits of a sensitive nose, I can also see the drawbacks."

"Luckily, Koga doesn't have a Grimer or Muk on his regular team," Vali had no wish to see what would happen if she had to face on of those.

"What does he usually use?" Steven asked as they reached one of the break areas.

"Usually, he tends to use a Venomoth, Nidorino, and a Golbat," Vali answered after thinking about it, "Depending on the amount of challengers, he may use either a Beedrill, Weezing, Gulpin, or Seviper. Of course, he could also use an Arbok or Ariados," She got off of Arwen's back and grabbed her bag before moving to one of the picnic tables since it was about time they took a break, "He could use any number of poison-type pokemon. For you, I'd worry about dual-types since he'll probably look you up the moment he finds out you're going to challenge him. While you have pokemon with a resistance to poison-types, he'll be looking for ways to insure you won't have an easy time at the gym,"

"Right," Steven followed her example as Balto and Arwen settled down next to the table as Metagross hovered beside them, "He's up for the Elite Four, isn't he?"

Vali shook her head, "Not yet. From what Professor Oak told me, Koga still has a couple of years before he can qualify for the position. By the time Ash starts traveling, he'll probably be up for it."

They released their pokemon who began exploring the area or attempting to fly in Smaug's case. Steven looked at her curiously, "What do you mean by that?"

"As a rule, a Gym Leader cannot become a member of the Elite Four unless certain qualifications have been met," Vali held up a finger, "One, the Gym Leader must have an Elite quality team which means beating one of the Elite Four trainees currently being trained and last at least seven minutes against the strongest pokemon on the Champions true team," She raised a second finger, "Two, the Gym Leader must have someone to take over for them at the gym because they cannot hold two high titles in Kanto save for the title of ACE," She raised a third finger, "Three, the Gym Leader must prove that they have proficient knowledge of their chosen type and have the ability to fight against all weakness of said type," She raised a fourth finger, "Four, the Gym Leader must pass the Test,"

"The test?" Steven quirked an eyebrow at her as he took a water-bottle out of his bag.

"Not test, Test," Vali corrected as she grabbed one of her strawberry lemonades, "The Test is something that's been passed down from generation to generation of Elite. No Elite can become a member of the Elite Four without passing it nor can a champion of Kanto become the true Champion without passing it. I don't know all the details, but it pushes examinee to the limit. No one has ever become an Elite or the true Champion without passing the test,"

"What do you mean by 'true champion'?" Steven asked as she drank some of her lemonade.

Sighing softly, Vali capped the bottle and explained, "You can become a champion of Kanto without passing the test, but you'd be little more than a figurehead."

"That sounds kind of..." Steven trailed off.

"Fucked up?" Vali offered earning a nod, "Yeah, but it's to prevent a bad person from having control of the region. The League doesn't want Kanto to be in a position where its led by someone who would see the world under their thumb or a weak willed person that would be easily bribed by people," She could tell he wasn't convinced, "Basically, they don't want someone like Tom Riddle/Voldemort or Cornelius Fudge running Kanto,"

"That makes a lot more sense," Steven shook his head, "I never would have guessed,"

"Every region probably has something similar in place," Vali offered earning a contemplative look, "Especially since no one wants another civil war or a great war on their hands,"

Steven shuddered a bit, "Probably."

Vali couldn't blame him. The idea of war wasn't something she enjoyed thinking about. The wars of her old world were unpleasant to think about. The wars of the pokemon world were even worse. Muggles with their guns, tanks, military ships/planes, and their nukes. Magicals with their war-time spells, curses, magical creatures, and rituals. The two were bad especially when put together, but they weren't anywhere near as bad as wars in the pokemon world. Regions with powerful pokemon that could reshape the world maps at their fingertips, weapons powered by pokemon that could wipe out entire regions if they so desired to create them, and legendary pokemon that could wipe out all life on the planet if they so desired. So of course, war wasn't something she enjoyed thinking about especially when human stupidity caused most if not all of them.

While a peaceful world for the most part, the pokemon world had seen its fair share of wars. Most of them occurred in the distant past, the largest ones occurred as the regions formed and the clans of pokemon tamers fought for supremacy. Wars fought over resources, powerful pokemon, and even the legendaries, the history of this world was one bathed in blood. The wars that had been fought against the more powerful Legendaries such as Groudon, Kyogre, and Yveltal. The civil wars that occurred over misunderstandings or misguided attempts to get more power. And so much more, the pokemon world could be as violent as her old one if not more.

* * *

Balto laid down beside Vali after he finished eating his dinner. He observed his pack-mates with some sense of amusement. The broken one was recovering nicely. Celina and Smaug had reached their final forms. Little Idril wasn't a pup anymore especially with Terra there to help bolster her confidence. Arwen's energy was becoming tempered with each new day. While she may be the baby of the pack, Terra was a source of constant support.

Even Vali had changed since they set out, Balto looked at her. She wasn't as broken as she'd been when they'd first met. Every new day saw the shadows and pain in her eyes fading with each new experience. The burning flame within her core became brighter and more powerful with each moment. He could feel her magic, the energy that helped mask her flame from all save for the fire-types they came across, it was stronger and more potent. It honestly reminded him of a dual-type pokemon like Smaug had become with his evolution. A wildness grasped her energies though it held a carefully tempered edge created through meditation. If he hadn't known her as long as he had, he wouldn't believe she was human.

Balto had changed as well. He was growing stronger with each day. He was steadily growing closer to the limit of what he can accomplish as a Growlithe. It wouldn't be long before he reached that limit and Vali would evolve him into an Arcanine. Becoming a Arcanine was something he couldn't wait to become, he would never again find a limit to his power again. More than that, he would be able to protect Vali and their pack better which was his main goal when it came to his final evolution. Arcanine were the protectors and leaders of the pack after all.

* * *

"That had to hurt," Vali winced as Smaug laid in the crater that had formed due to how hard he'd hit the ground.

Smaug let out a low growl as he began pushing himself up. He looked pissed off at himself though that anger quickly transferred over to a nearby group of Spearow laughing at him. He released a flamethrower in their direction and they quickly took off with shrieks and squawks of shock. Wartortle quickly put out the fire caused by Smaug's rash actions before giving the Charizard with a look of irritation. Smaug bared his teeth at Wartortle and she noticed that one of his teeth was cracked. Clearing her throat, she watched as Smaug looked at her before ducking his head at her unimpressed look. She pointed to the spot on the grass next to her and he quickly followed her direction. Steven looked at her curiously from where he was carefully removing some dried out scales causing Lileep quite a bit of discomfort, "What's going on?"

"One of Smaug's teeth is cracked," Vali reached into her bag to pull out her medkit as Smaug settled beside of her, "Smaug, open," Smaug opened his mouth as she put her gloves and grabbed her mini-flashlight, "Must have happened either during his most recent landing or one of the others,"

Vali looked at the cracked tooth which happened to be one of his eye-teeth. The crack ran from the tip of his fang up to his gum. She tsked at the sight of it then looked at the others. By the time she was done, she found three on his upper jaw close to the eye-teeth and four on the left side of his lower jaw. Steven looked her curiously as she bent down to grabbed some of the teeth care supplies in her med-kit, "I take it you found more?"

"Yes," Vali looked at Smaug, "I'm going to be seeing if any of your teeth are loose or if any of the cracked ones go all the way to the nerve. If it hurts, I want you to do your best to avoid closing her mouth on my hand, okay?" Smaug nodded slowly, "I promise that I'm not trying to hurt you. I just want to get these taken care of before they get infected,"

Smaug nodded slowly and stayed as still as possible while Vali did the same thing Professor Oak showed her when some of the pokemon in his care ended up with cracked or broken teeth. She was as gentle as possible to ensure that Smaug wasn't put through more pain than necessary. He managed to keep his mouth from closing each time it hurt him and she removed her hand to let the pain fade before she went onto the next one. By the time she was done, she found three teeth that had been knocked loose by Smaug's impacts into the ground, two that were cracked all the way to the nerve, a pair of broken teeth, and one with a hairline crack that she could just use a bit of potion on which would heal it.

Vali grabbed her pair of pliers prompting Steven to ask, "What are you going to do with those?"

"Smaug has three teeth that are loose enough that they'll fall out very soon, but I want to get them out of his mouth before he flies again," Vali answered as Smaug eyed her warily, "If I don't, the next good hit to the muzzle could end up with the teeth going through soft parts of his mouth which we really don't need on top of the damage already done," She looked at Steven, "Can you have Metagross hold Smaug still and keep his mouth open for this part? I really don't want him to accidentally bite me,"

Steven nodded, "Of course," He gave the order to Metagross and Smaug was soon held completely still with his mouth open, "What are you going to do with them?"

"Send them home," Vali answered as she began removing the loose teeth, "I'm hoping Delia will get one made into a necklace for me. I'm going to give one to Ash and one to Gary since they'll get a kick out of it," Smaug twitched a bit and let out a low sound as she pulled out the first tooth, "Luckily, certain pokemon like Charizard are able to regrow any damaged teeth. They tend to shed any broken, cracked, or otherwise imperfect teeth every couple of months though its more every couple of weeks during the first few years after evolution due to the fact they're at their most volatile during those years. The only problem with wait for them to be shed is when an infection forms inside the cracked or broken teeth," She removed the next one and moved the pliers a bit deeper into Smaug's mouth while holding her breath since his stunk quite a bit, "While at least one of these I can use a potion to heal the crack, I can't do the same with the others,"

Vali pulled out the last loose tooth as Steven asked, "So what will you do with the others?"

"I'm going to use this," Vali put the pliers away and set the teeth down carefully before pulling out a tube, "It created a protective film over the surface of the teeth that prevents infection from forming though it has to be reapplied every twelve hours. I'm going to have to mash Smaug's food to help him eat it since he can't chew without hurting himself. Remind me to get more of it when we get to Fuchsia,"

Vali pulled out a special brush made for sharp teeth and began applying the solution to each of the teeth she'd mentioned. She paused to grab one of her potions and carefully applied it to the hairline crack with an eyedropper. Once it dried a bit, she applied the same solution to it as the others. After doing another check, she removed her hands and began to clean up her supplies prompting Metagross to release Smaug from his grip. Smaug shook his head and rubbed at his muzzle with his hands. She put everything save for the teeth and her gloves away in the med-kit. As she began grabbing things to clean them up, Steven asked her, "Where exactly did you learn this?"

"Professor Oak. He wanted me to be prepared to take care of all my pokemon's health needs," Vali began cleaning the teeth, "Do you have an empty vial I can borrow?"

Steven nodded as he reached into his bag, "Sure."


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997: Okay not my usual stopping point at the end, but it's been a crazy almost month since I last posted on this story. I can't really put anything else in this chapter because I honestly put in a lot of information that I feel needs to sink in among other things. Love you guys and hope you enjoy this chapter.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Twister60 : Thank you! **

**comodo50 : Long reviews are awesome. The gloves are either shed or from a dead one. I haven't really thought about it to be honest. I have not heard of Lord Helix. *Winks at you* It's okay to cry if you need to. There is no shame in it especially if you're alone, in the dark...*Pauses* I'm just going to stop before I become depressed again. **

**frankieu : Thank you. I'm glad you liked the chapter. **

**DarthLeo : Thank you.**

 **IskandarVesperia : I love that quote. It really brings everything into perspective. I'm glad you liked the battles. I do my best to make them interesting while also keeping them from becoming too much. Thank you and I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.**

 **AyameKitsune : Here's the next chapter. **

**Jostanos : Thank you...Who the heck is Matsuo? I feel like I should know though...Oh well. Nice pun. I love finding other fans of the Simpsons...Are you a fan?**

 **akinomatis : You'll just have to wait and see, but yes there will be more training with her magic soon. I think I already addressed this through a PM, but the list is on my Profile page. It makes it easier for me to keep track of everything without crowding the story too much.**

 **LoreilDarksky00 : That's what I'm trying to go for, I like fleshing stuff like that out since it makes my writing all the better and helps my readers understand my thought process somewhat. I'm glad you liked the chapter. **

**AnonChan1 : I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. I didn't see any real questions in there, but if you have them, I'm here to answer them. **

**ThunderClaw03 : *Imagines it and cringes* Yes, that would probably cause your hand to be amputated or worse...You would probably need a psychic-type legendary to do it too. **

**Lady Kaiki : Here you are.**

 **Zeru'Xil : Glad you liked it.**

 **PikaMew1288 : Still not answering that question. In time, all will become clear. Why would she need to be bitten by a werewolf? She already has an enhanced sense of smell. I don't really see a werewolf being accepted into the pokemon world. I think Arceus would prevent it just because of how bad things could/would go especially when you consider the evil teams, so no werewolf!Vali or Creature!Vali in this story. As for the soulpiece, you'll have to wait and see what I do with that part. **

**AyaValkyrie : Glad to hear it. **

**xirons20 : No Pichu...Ash alre *Gets hit on the head by a mallet wielding Vali* Fine, I won't spoil the plot. Where on earth did you get that-*Takes a deep breath* It doesn't matter. **

**Sn : No, I have not played it. The game was sold out when I went to buy it and I ended up spending the money on a diffrent game. Not the best idea, but yeah. **

**Night Hunter533 : *Thinks about it carefully* I suppose even though I haven't really considered the Clefairy-line , but what do you mean by unaware?**

 **Poseidon93 : I am too. **

**Antex-The Legendary Zoroark : I'm glad that you love the story and look forward to seeing what you think of this. I hope to hear more from you in the future. **

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**Words: 17,543**

* * *

Chapter 11

* * *

Vali looked out at the ocean view with a small smile on her face as she relaxed against guard rails set up on the minor cliff. It would only take another hour or two of traveling to reach Fuchsia City where the only poison-type gym in Kanto resided alongside the Safari-zone. With any hope, she'll have tons of fantastic pictures to send home to Pallet and maybe a new member of her family. While the latter wasn't up high on her list, she looked forward to see just who or what ended up joining her.

A soft bark sounded from her side as the Smaug and Celina flew overhead. The Charizard had finally managed to get the hang of flying though he still wasn't very good. Small trips that ended with a bit of stumbling on the ground were all he could do at the moment, Vali was just happy that he'd stopped crashing. She looked to her left side and found Balto sitting there. Bending down, she scratched between his ears, "I'm just thinking about Fuchsia. We're going to be doing a lot there especially since I'm betting Professor Oak wants us to take a good look at the Safari zone," Balto's head tilted when she sighed, "The Safari-zone has so many diffrent pokemon there and despite it not being very high on the list of things I want to do, I hope that we might find a new member of our family. It's an odd feeling, ya know," She ran a hand through her hair, "Being in the middle of wanting a new member of the family and not really wanting another one. At the beginning of my journey, I hoped to find maybe a full team of six pokemon that I could count on, but I've found more than that," She smiled a bit weakly, "I've always wanted a big family that could take care of me while I do the same. A family filled with the love I'd been forbidden from having. Now that we're in this world and I'm on this journey, I'm getting that family, but...is it right for me to want more?" Balto looked at her in confusion, "I want to keep adding to our family, but I don't want to do it too quickly. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings if I find another new member of the family. I don't..." Balto nuzzled her likely sensing the distress she was feeling, "I don't want to be resented by anyone."

Balto let out a furious growl and glared at her as he began to bark. Vali didn't need anyone to translate what he was saying since it was pretty clear he was berating her. He gestured to her pokemon who were beginning to look over alongside Steven and his own pokemon. Eventually, he ended his tirade with a firm bark and a determined look in his eyes. Smiling as she dropped to her knees, she hugged him, "I didn't understand all of that, but I'm guessing that you're calling me a dumb for thinking any of you would resent me, right?" Balto nodded and nudged her cheek with his nose, "Alright. If we find another family member, I won't hesitate to offer them a chance to join us."

Balto licked her cheek and she laughed while pulling away from him. Wiping away the spit, she said, "Yeah, yeah, you're happy that I'm not being a dumb human anymore. Let's go reassure everyone that we aren't fighting okay?"

* * *

Steven was still chuckling as they resumed their journey towards Fuchsia city, "I can't believe Balto actually lectured you."

"I can. He's done it before when I got particularly depressed a few times back in Pallet," Vali said earning a surprised look, "Getting dragged to a new world especially one so diffrent from my old one isn't exactly an easy thing to get used to even when people are trying to help. During the first year, I struggled with being depressed over the possibility of never seeing my old friends again. Balto really bit into me the times when I decided not to get out of bed again," Vali reached up to rub the permanent indents on her right ear that couldn't be seen by anyone unless they were really looking for it, "I mean really bit into me. I have the scar from those times when he bit me too hard,"

Steven gave Balto a surprised look, "I didn't think he'd ever done something like that before."

"If he hadn't done it to me, I wouldn't have thought he'd do something like that with how he acts," Vali smiled down at Balto as she had Arwen slow to a walk, "He's a wise little guy," Balto barked at her and by the look in his eyes, she knew he was saying 'Yeah, I'm a wise guy, Vali, and don't forget it', "No one really knew it was happening until Balto bit me a bit too hard a few times and caused me to bleed. They were pissed off especially Sirius, but Alakazam ensured that they knew why he was doing it. They weren't too happy about it, but they couldn't really berate him seeing as he was trying to help me. It took months for Sirius to forgive Balto,"

"I'm surprised Sirius forgave him," Steven commented as they reached a section of the Cycling Road which contained heavy purple tiles that marked the 55 odd miles left until they reached Fuchsia, "All things considered,"

Vali nodded in understanding, "Everyone was a bit surprised at the time until they realized why he'd forgiven Balto. Sirius could see that Balto was actually helping me and slowly getting me to act my physical age. With Balto's help, I began to act like a child rather than the mini-adult, Sirius' term for how I acted, that I had been forced to become. I was happier and it was all thanks to a ballsy Growlithe that took offense to my depression," She paused as a thought came to her and grinned a bit, "I think that's around the time everyone realized that Balto was meant to be my pokemon. Looking back onto our time together, I can see that we've always shared a bond from the first moment our eyes met. Not a familiar bond like what I had with Hedwig, I don't think it would be possible to have one with a pokemon, but it's a bond all the same if perhaps stronger somehow."

"It sounds like the bond I share with my original Metagross," Steven smiled as she looked at him, "Back when I first met them as a Beldum, I felt a connection to them that I could never possibly explain. All I knew was that they were meant to be my first, my partner that would be beside me no matter what. It's always hardest to send them away from me,"

A bond that would last even beyond death. The thought made Vali jolt a bit as it rang through her entire being. Where had that thought come from? She wondered over it as the thought settled deeply into her mind. Fingers slowly reached up to press against Fawkes' feather, it felt right despite being a bit morbid. She had noticed while meditating that she'd had some form of connection to Balto along with each of her pokemon though not as strong as with him. She had subconsciously dismissed at the time as something that was there, but didn't require any acknowledgement. Did it mean that she'd eventually bond with her each member of her pokemon family to that degree as well? Did it mean that should she die, their life would be forfeit? Somehow, she knew her answers lay either with 'The Lord of Flames' or the mysterious 'She' that Ninetales had spoken of.

Vali shook it from her mind as she mused, "I wonder if that's what happens with every trainer that ends up becoming high level trainers."

"Probably," Steven glanced at her, "Are you alright? You're holding onto Fawkes' feather with a pretty tight grip,"

Vali looked down at her slightly white knuckled grip on Fawkes' feather and let go, "I'm fine. Just an odd thought, it's nothing."

"Are you sure?" Steven eyed her in concern.

"I'm sure. Just a thought about something involving my visions," Vali rubbed Arwen's side feeling the heat eased the ache that had developed in her hand due to how hard she was gripping the feather.

Steven's concern didn't abate, "Anything you can talk about?"

Vali shook her head as she felt the beginnings of an intense headache, "No. Let's just say I'm going to have a lot of questions for whoever it is that sent me those visions and refuses to let me talk about it."

Steven grimaced at her words, "I have a few questions for them as well."

* * *

Fuchsia city was one of the more traditional looking cities in Kanto. It still had its share of sky scrapers, but they were all designed to look like a beautiful mesh of tradition mixed with modern. The city was smaller than Vermilion despite being a port, but it was mostly due to its closeness to the Safari Zone which was a few miles north of the city. The non-traditional buildings of Fuchsia city were the buildings were the pokemon center, the human hospital, and the clinic that made all the antidotes for the Kanto region.

Vali grinned as she noticed the booths that were being set up, "It looks like we're just in time for the Lantern festival."

"Lanterns Festival?" Steven looked at her as they traveled to the pokemon center.

Vali nodded as she gestured to one of the many tables where people worked to create lanterns, "It's one of the more traditional festival usually held near the beginning of November. It isn't as wildly celebrated as Christmas or Halloween anymore; however, you can usually find it being celebrated in Lavender Town and Fuchsia," She smiled lightly, "People create paper lanterns and at midnight, they send them floating alongside the waters current. It is believe that the lanterns will float past the barrier between this world and the next. People usually write on little papers or on the inside of the lantern with the hope that those they've lost will find the lantern and know that they're missed."

"You've done it before," Steven asked earning a nod.

"After coming to this world and learning about it, Sirius and I participated," Vali watched as some young children rushed towards their parents and felt the familiar pang in her chest, "I don't know if it really works, but..."

"It still feels nice to do something like that," Steven guessed with an unreadable look in his eyes, "We'll I'm glad we managed to make it in time. We should go get rooms at the pokemon center and find out when it starts,"

Vali nodded as they continued to walk, "Yeah."

They reached the pokemon center with some struggle since the streets were rather crowded with people trying to get things done in time for the festival. The Nurse Joy running the counter smiled them, "Welcome to the Fuchsia city pokemon center, how may I help you?"

"Can we get two rooms and have our pokemon looked over?" Steven asked earning a nod as they both pulled out their pokedexs.

"I also have an egg that I'd like to have looked over just to check on it," Vali added as she handed over her pokedex, "My Charizard evolved while we were in Celadon and has been getting used to flying. I've provided as much care as I could, but it would best if a professional checked him over just take make sure he's okay,"

"Of course," Nurse Joy pulled out two trays and took their pokedexs before moving away from the counter.

They put their pokeballs onto the trays and Vali took the egg out of her bag. She set it carefully onto the counter. Nurse Joy returned with both their pokedexes and a pair of keys. She handed them over as Steven asked, "Nurse Joy, is the festival of Lanterns occurring tonight?"

"No, it will start tomorrow around 2 in the afternoon. I assume you two are interested in participating?" Nurse Joy asked earning nods, "The pokemon center has yukata for rental during festivals like this,"

"We'll keep it in mind," Steven replied and they headed off to their rooms, "Do you usually wear one for this?"

Vali shook her head, "Not really, we don't really do much outside of the whole lantern making, lighting them, and sending them off via the ocean. The only time I've ever worn them was during the New Years festival when we would go to Cameron Palace to pay our respects to Mew," Vali thought about the yukata that Delia had made her, "Delia made me one for last year, but I don't think I'll fit into it."

"Delia can make clothes?" Steven asked earning a nod, "I didn't know that,"

"She only really makes clothes for special occasions," Vali wondered if Delia would make her another one before dismissing it.

Vali didn't really need a yukata especially when she was likely to grow out of it during her next growth spurt. Perhaps once she was older and had more storage space, she would see if Delia would make one for her.

* * *

"That's wonderful, Vali," Delia beamed at Vali as the fire-type master-in-training explained what was going on in Fuchsia, "It's a shame I can't make you a yukata in time,"

"It's fine," Vali waved off Delia's concern, "I don't really want one right now since I'll likely out grow it with my next growth spurt,"

"True enough," Delia shook her head lightly, "Anyway, are you going to be sending a package home soon?"

"Within the next few days, I want to pick up a few souvenirs before I do," Vali leaned back in the seat and sighed, "I can't believe it's already November. We only have a month and a few weeks before Christmas," It felt like just yesterday she had started out on her journey with Steven, "We've all grown so much in the span of a few months. I mean I've battled my way past four gym leaders and am on my fifth. Smaug's fully evolved alongside Celina. Balto's growing so much stronger. Pikachu is stronger too. Eevee is trusting me and we're becoming closer. Idril's becoming less timid and shy. Arwen's tempering her high energy. Terra is getting stronger every day. The egg is still a bit far from hatching, but soon I'll have a little Vulpix running around as well," Vali ran a hand through her hair, "My family is growing bigger and stronger with each passing day,"

Delia smiled softly, "You're growing too, Vali."

Vali nodded with a tired grin, "Yeah. They're all helping me become stronger and better than before. I'm so glad that I decided to become a trainer. It might be a hard road, but it is fulfilling."

A ding sounded in kitchen and Delia let out a laugh, "I've got to get those cookies out of the oven and then head over to Professor Oak's. I assume you'll be contacting him next?"

"Yeah. I need to tell him about how our trip through Cycling Road went," Vali needed to ask him about the Safari Zone and Pikachu as well.

"Alright, I'll let you go. Have fun with the festival, Vali," Delia told her with a warm smile, "We miss you,"

"I miss you all too," Vali replied before cutting the connection and dialing up the Professor.

Vali's talk with the Professor ran a bit long as they discussed the things she'd noticed about the Cycling Road. The discussion of the Safari Zone ran a bit long as well due to the amount of information that Professor Oak wanted to get. He would send her some funds for multiple trips into the Safari Zone since there was so much he wanted to take a look at. Since she didn't fit the usual requirements Professor Oak had for those that worked under him, the Safari Zone wouldn't think to monitor her more than any other trainer thus allowing her to get as much detail as possible. If any problems were going on that the people running the Safari Zone failed to report, Professor Oak would know once she sent her findings to him and the League would get involved.

Professor Oak yawned a bit, "Well that's about all that I need right now, Vali."

"Professor, I have a request of you," Vali said as she closed the notebook she'd been writing Professor Oak's requests down in, "Would it be possible to place Pikachu on my inactive roster and send him to me? I'm aware that it isn't normally done especially with first year trainers outside of those with a newly hatched pokemon and that the whole Eevee situation is unique. Everyone misses him and I don't want his training to suffer,"

"I see," Professor Oak ran a hand over his face, "Vali, how long would you want him on your inactive roster?"

"Until a few days before we leave Fuchsia," They were planning on staying in Fuchsia for three weeks, "Which means three weeks to a month depending on my gym battle,"

Professor Oak hummed as he turned to the computer that sat beside the monitor, "I suppose I could allow it. Would you like me to do the same for any pokemon you might end up catching in the Safari Zone?"

"Yes, Professor," Vali sighed in relief, "Thank you, Professor,"

"Just promise me that you won't abuse this privilege especially since your trainers license is likely to be suspended if you do," Professor Oak told her sternly, "I'm placing a lot of trust in you, Vali,"

"I know, Professor," Vali swallowed around the lump that formed in her throat, "I won't ever abuse the privilege you're giving me,"

Professor Oak nodded and began to type something on his computer, "It will take me about a day to get everything set up. I'll send a message via Pokedex once everything goes through and I send Pikachu over."

"Understood, Professor," Vali smiled as the lump disappeared, "I won't make you regret this,"

Professor Oak nodded to her, "I'll talk to you later, Vali. You've given me quite a bit to work on."

"Sorry Professor," Vali apologized with a wince, "I'll send my journals to you as soon as possible,"

"It's fine. Enjoy the festival, Vali. Fuchsia is one of the best places to be during the Lantern Festival," Professor Oak waved off her apology, "I'll speak with you again soon,"

The connection cut and Vali took her pokedex from the machine before getting up. She stretched feeling the stiff muscles caused by sitting in one place for too long ache a bit. Grabbing her notebook and pen, she left the private booth she'd chosen and decided to see if any of her pokemon were finished being checked over. Nurse Joy offered her a warm smile, "Ah, Valkyrie. I was about to call for you."

"Call me Vali, please," Vali looked at the pink haired woman curiously, "Is everything okay?"

"At the current moment, everyone is in relatively good health outside of the usual traveling/training exhaustion," Nurse Joy replied easing the minor amount of tension that had developed at Nurse Joy's words, "I'm going to be keeping Smaug until tomorrow due to the small infection I found. While it could have been worse, you did a very good job preventing that,"

"I just did what Professor Oak showed me during my trips to the lab before I set out on my journey," Vali would have to recommend Ash and Gary doing the same things she had since a lot of the stuff ended up being useful, "So other than Smaug's infection, everything else is fine,"

Nurse Joy nodded as she placed the tray of Vali's pokeballs onto the counter, "Yes though I would recommend having your fire-types curl up around your Vulpix egg. Due to how small it is, I think it will need more heat to properly form its inner flame sacks which are developing at the moment."

"For an hour or two every night?" Vali clarified as she opened her notebook and watched Nurse Joy nod before writing it down, "No problem. How much longer do you think it'll take for the egg to hatch,"

"Based on how far it is in its development, I believe you only have a month left before it hatches give or take a few days. Before you leave Fuchsia, I can check it over and give you a better estimation," Nurse Joy replied earning a light grin as she marked that down in the notebook.

"I'll definitely have you check it out before then. Any idea if you can check it's gender just yet?" Vali asked as she took her pokeballs back feeling a bit uneasy without Smaug's pokeball on her belt before taking the incubator as Nurse Joy set it on the counter.

"Not yet, but I should be able to before you leave Fuchsia," Pokemon eggs had to be close to hatching before things like gender could be revealed mostly due to how thick the egg sack around the baby pokemon was.

"Thanks, Nurse Joy," Vali told the nurse before heading off to her room.

Vali wondered if maybe she should try meditating with the egg and wondered how it would affect the baby inside. For now, she would meditate with the egg close to her, but not actively holding onto it since there was no telling how her inner flame would affect the baby.

* * *

Steven looked over the yukata selection with a small frown. He hadn't worn one before since it was more of a Kanto and Johto thing than a Hoenn one. Of course, he probably had as a baby or toddler since his mother had been from Johto. That was one of the few things he knew about his mother, she had died when he was just four years old and his father pretty much shut down when it came to discussing her. A bitter taste settled on his tongue as he thought about it. He jumped a bit when a hand settled on his shoulder and looked to the side into a pair of concerned green eyes, "You okay, Steven? You're burning a hole in that yukata. Granted lime green with pink flowers is definitely not a good combination for anyone, but it doesn't deserve to be glared at like that."

"It's not the yukata," Steven put it back, "I just thought about something,"

"A bad thing from what I can see," Vali eyed him for a few moments before she began rooting through the yukata, "Anything you want to talk about?"

Steven contemplated her question as she picked up a dark blue yukata for a few moments before putting it back with a tsking sound. It wasn't something that really effected him much since he didn't really remember his mother outside of some rather fuzzy memories or when he asked Metagross to dig some up. Thinking about it carefully, he said, "Yukata are more of a Kanto and Johto thing than a Hoenn one. I haven't worn these since I was a toddler back when my mother was still alive."

Vali paused for a moment before placing down the dark red yukata she'd picked up, "I'm sensing that there's more to the story."

"My father shuts down when it comes to discussing my mother. From what I can remember, she died during a kidnapping and robbery gone wrong," Steven barely remembered the blur of memories that came from the days after they found out, "My father loved her a lot and it hurts him so much to talk about her. He never really recovered from losing her,"

Steven understood that even if it didn't take away the bitterness that burned inside of him. He pushed those feelings down as Vali spoke in a soft voice, "I don't have any right to weigh in on this, but I'm guessing that you feel a bit angry about it."

"More bitterness than anger," Steven replied with a frown.

"I'm sorry about your mother, Steven, but at the very least, you have your dad," Vali picked up a dark gray yukata with little navy blue waves on it, "Maybe one day he'll be able to talk about her,"

A part of Steven wanted to snap at Vali, but she understood his pain to a point. Unlike him, she'd lost both her parents and didn't have the ability to draw on memories of them like he did save for a single horrible moment of watching her mother die. Taking a deep breath, he smiled, "True enough."

"Since we're going to participate in the lantern festival, you can make one for your mother," Vali held out the yukata she'd been looking over, "Try this one on, I think you'll look good in it,"

Steven took it from her feeling a bit surprised by the almost silky texture, "Did you find yours already?"

"Yeah, I can't wait to wear it," Vali grinned a bit, "Now go try that one on, I'll find another one if this one doesn't work out,"

"Thank you, Vali," Steven told her as he moved towards the dressing rooms.

"No problem," Vali offered him a warm grin.

Steven headed to the dressing room with a slight smile on his lips. He felt a bit better after telling Vali and a bit less bitter. He thought about the lanterns and decided to try it. It's not like he had anything to lose especially since it's not like he'll be able to go back to Hoenn in time to visit his mother's grave on the anniversary this year.

* * *

Steven ended up choosing Vali's second option which was a black yukata with steel blue wave designs. The first had been a bit too small for him to wear which was unfortunate since he had liked it quite a bit. It brought back a memory of wearing something similar while walking through a shrine with his mother. Now, he was waiting for Vali to finish getting dressed so they could join the other festival goers. Looking up as he heard a door open, he watched Vali exit her room in the pokemon center with Balto at her side. Her other pokemon were a bit too big to be wandering around freely outside of Idril and Terra, they were a bit too rare for the fire-type master-in-training to risk letting them walk around during an event like this.

Vali was wearing a black flame patterned dark red yukata. To his surprise, she had actually done something with her hair rather than keep it down. Portions of her hair were braided together into a chain that kept the rest of her hair in a rather messy looking bun. A set of flower pins kept it in place alongside a dark red ribbon that was woven through the braided chain. She wore a pair of what looked like black ballet flats. To finish off the outfit, she had a pair of ruby studs in her ears. She looked around before catching sight of him, "Sorry if I made you wait long, I had a little trouble getting my hair like this. It never wants to stay in position even if I'm using magic on it."

"It's fine. You look wonderful," Steven replied waving off the apology.

Vali smiled at him, "You definitely look really good too," Wartortle made a small sound and she giggled, "You're look good too, Wartortle. Are you looking forward to having some fun?"

Wartortle made a sound of agreement and grinned at her. Vali patted his head and they headed downstairs. Before they left the pokemon center, Vali had Nurse Joy take a picture of them much the pink haired nurses' amusement.

* * *

The lantern festival was boasted multiple games, foods, and other activities besides making lanterns. Vali ended up participating in a few events that catered to traveling trainers. She pulled Steven into them as well ensuring that both of them had fun. As it was a festival, she allowed her pokemon to act like the gluttons they were and eat as much as they wanted since the food was relatively cheap. She ended up buying a few interesting trinkets she'd be sending home including a paper lantern ornament that she knew Delia would absolutely love. She bought a small trinket for Steven, a glass Aggron that looked like it was made of origami. She planned on giving it to him tomorrow when the festival was over with. Of all the Lantern festivals she'd participated in, she liked this one the best.

Vali sat down next to Steven at one of the lantern making stations and painted a rather crude looking lion on her lantern. She painted a deer and a lily as well though only the lily turned out nice. She looked over at Steven's and giggled a bit, "Having a little trouble?"

"A bit," Steven's cheeks flushed a little.

"What are you trying to paint? I'm not very good, but mine don't look like formless blobs," Vali showed him hers.

"I'm trying to paint some wisteria vines," Steven's voice turned a bit soft, "My mother loved them a lot and Father keeps a garden of them,"

Vali's amusement died down into understanding and she changed out Steven's paint covered lantern for a clean one. She painted some wisteria vines as she said, "According to Siri, my mom wanted to name me Wisteria. My dad vetoed it since he thought I'd get teased a lot. I'm still not clear on why they named me Valkyrie or Rosebud since Wisteria would probably be a nice name," She glanced at him, "My mom loved them too. I barely remember it, but my mom used to wear some kind of perfume with wisteria in it."

Steven let out a small chuckle, "That's an interesting coincidence."

Vali hummed softly as she finished painting the wisteria vines, "They might not be the best, but they're still something."

The wisteria vines were a bit crude, but you could still make out what they were supposed to be.

* * *

Vali's letter to her parents was a short one that mostly summarized her journey so far, her dreams for the future, and her fears. She placed it within her lantern as Steven did the same with his and they followed everyone to the edge of a river that fed into the ocean. The lanterns were lit by the Gym Trainers that were participating in the festival then sent down the river. The scene created by the floating lanterns was beautiful and Vali took as many pictures as she could of the action. After all the lanterns had been sent off, everyone returned to their homes or places of rest.

Vali looked through the pictures she'd taken that night with a smile as she walked beside Steven, "These are awesome, I can't wait to see how they look when they're developed."

Vali held out her camera to Steven and he began going through the pictures as well, "These are amazing, Vali. I'm sure Delia will love them."

"Do you want to send some home as well?" Vali asked as Steven paused at a photo of him and Metagross receiving a rather large stuffed Pikachu doll.

Steven contemplated her offer before nodding, "I think that would be a nice idea."

"Delia would probably have some good ideas about which photos to send," Vali took her camera back when Steven held it out to her, "By the way, what are you going to do with that really big Pikachu doll?"

"Do you want it?" Steven asked as they reached the pokemon center.

Vali shook her head, "Thanks for the offer, but no. I don't have the room in my bag for it and doll's aren't my kind of thing. Ash on the other hand will likely appreciate it. He loves anything to do with pokemon."

"Then I'll send it to Delia and have her hold onto it until Christmas as a present for Ash," Steven decided as they headed for the stairs.

Vali hugged Steven once they reached the doors to their rooms, "Thanks for doing this with me, Steven."

"It's no problem. I had a lot of fun," Steven hugged her back.

Letting go, Vali yawned softly, "I'm off to bed. See you in the morning."

"See you in the morning," Steven replied and she headed to her room.

After changing into her night clothes and letting her hair down, Vali folded the yukata up and set it to the side alongside the pins she'd borrowed. She would return them tomorrow once she got some rest. Releasing everyone while feeling thankful that her room in the pokemon center was big enough to fit everyone, she brushed her teeth before joining them on the bed. Everyone curled up as close as they could with Eevee deciding to curl up against her neck. Tonight had been a really good night.

* * *

Professor Oak sent the message she was waiting for an hour after she'd eaten breakfast. Heading to the front desk of the pokemon center, Vali waited in the short line of trainers for a few minutes before reaching Nurse Joy. Nurse Joy offered her a warm smile, "Good morning, Vali. How can I help you today?"

"Professor Oak should have sent a Pikachu here for me," Vali held out her pokedex for Nurse Joy.

"Let me just check to verify the information," Nurse Joy took her pokedex and inserted it into the computer before beginning to type, "Oh my, I wasn't aware that Professor Oak had taken on a data collector as young as you,"

"I was surprised when he gave me the offer," Vali replied as she leaned against the counter, "But it's something I was hoping to become anyway if I didn't manage to become an ACE or an Elite,"

Nurse Joy nodded as she clicked her mouse, "Well, it's nice to see young trainers thinking about more than their next battle. Alright here we are..." Nurse Joy hummed lightly before nodding as she clicked her mouth, "Everything seems to be in order, give me a few moments to get Pikachu for you."

Nurse Joy took Vali's pokedex from the computer and handed it back to the fire-type master-in-training before heading into the backroom. Vali looked down at Balto, "I can't wait. It'll be nice to have everyone together again," Balto barked as he wagged his tail, "I can't wait to start training with everyone. With Pikachu, everyone that can do it will be learning Double Team which means we'll get a lot more combinations to work with."

Nurse Joy returned carrying Pikachu's pokeball, "Here you are, Vali. Is there anything else?"

"Are there any tournaments or anything happening within the next month?" Vali took the familiar pokeball feeling a sense of completion fall over her.

Vali relished in the knowledge that she'd have every member of her pokemon family at hand. Everyone would be there to welcome any new family members into the fold. She focused on Nurse Joy as she set Pikachu's pokeball on her waist, "Not this month, December however will have many diffrent events due to the holiday season."

"Thank you, Nurse Joy," Vali told the pink haired nurse before taking her leave.

While it was somewhat disappointing that there wasn't any tournaments this month, Vali supposed it was a good idea to take a break from those kinds of events. It had been a lot of fun, but perhaps being able to focus on their gym battle and being able to deepen their bond would be even better. They would need a deep bond in order to reach elite level. But other than that ambition, she wanted them to be able to trust one another and reach an understanding that would allow them to train with one another if she wasn't around the guide them.

* * *

Pikachu was pounced on the moment he was released from his pokeball. Once the surprise wore off, he found himself enjoying it as his family surrounded him. Everyone was stronger than the last time he saw them, but so was he even if it was more of a subtle increase in strength. Running after Vali's little brother, the young Pidgey, and the other boy had ensured that he got stronger, he'd had to get stronger in order to protect those rambunctious children. Whenever he wasn't running after the children, he was either increasing his electrical capacity, discharging the gathered electricity through training, or sparring with other electric-types. It was becoming quite clear to him that soon enough he'd reach the limit of what he could do as a Pikachu and that was something exciting. After all, he'd never though he'd ever reach that level after what had happened though he supposed there was someone to thank for that.

Looking up at Vali as she leaned back against the wall as their family trained, Pikachu smiled a little as memories of the past seeped into his mind. She wasn't his first trainer, but that didn't matter to him especially after everything they'd been through together. She was diffrent from his former trainer least of all because she wouldn't abandon him as that boy had. She was much like the trainer his mother had spoken of back when he'd been a baby Pichu. Once he'd evolved into a Pikachu, he'd searched for a trainer like that and had thought he'd found one only to be abandoned in a foreign land across the ocean the moment he became useless. It had made him bitter and cold towards humans. He'd hardened his heart and forced his dreams of finding the perfect trainer from his mind. But not even two months after his abandonment, she'd found him and decided to take him in as part of her family.

Vali had broken through the walls around his heart just as she was doing with Eevee. Even though he hadn't been sold on being her pokemon at first, Pikachu had come to care for her. And even if it meant that he'd become a Kanto Raichu rather than Alolan one like the generations before him, he would take it. Not because he wanted to become one of the strongest electric-types like he'd dreamed of before, he wanted to become a Raichu for Vali. He wanted to protect her and their family as much as he could. Though he wouldn't be alone in that endeavor, the rest of their family and even Vali herself would protect each other no matter what.

* * *

Vali looked over Pikachu's move set with some surprise. He had learned Discharge, Spark, Nuzzle, Agility, and Thunder while he was at Professor Oak's Corral. Smiling when she realized that he'd done as she asked, she looked at Pikachu, "You really went all out back at the Corral, didn't you?" Pikachu nodded with a grin, "I'm going to guess Ash, Gary, and Pidgey forced you to learn Agility if only to keep them from getting badly hurt?" Pikachu nodded with an exasperated look, "I swear those three are going to give everyone grey hair by the time they're able to become pokemon trainers. Thank you for looking after them, Pikachu. I was a bit worried since I'm usually the one keeping them out of trouble since Daisy left for her journey last year."

One of the boys alone wasn't that hard to deal with unless Ash wanted to go exploring and his ability to get lost kicked in. Add in the other and suddenly they were a pair of danger magnets, Vali couldn't keep track of how many times she'd had to keep the pair from getting hurt because they pissed off the wrong pokemon. It hadn't been that hard when Daisy was still in Pallet Town, but then the female Oak had left on her journey. Shaking her head lightly to clear away those memories, she said, "Well, you've got a few more attacks that you can naturally learn. We have Feint, Slam, Wild Charge, and Light Screen. Wild Charge is something that you can teach Balto and Arwen once you learn it."

While a TM would be better and take less time, Vali didn't know where to get the Wild Charge TM since it wasn't sold very often in Kanto stores. She looked at Pikachu and bent down showing him the screen of her pokedex. He pointed to Wild Charge which made her smile a bit, "Okay, we'll work on Wild Charge," She clicked the move and looked over the data gathered about it, "Hmm, it looks like learning Slam will be a must before you learn Wild Charge because the fundamentals are pretty much the same. After that, I'll see if Steven has any pokemon that know Light Screen and see if they can teach you. Feint is something we'll need to work on with Balto or one of the others that know Protect."

It'll give everyone that knows Protect a chance to strengthen their barriers and hopefully be able to keep the odd move from breaking them. No one really knew how Feint worked just that it somehow managed to do so. Professor Oak theorized that the energy used during Feint somehow managed to destabilize the energy used to make Protect or Detect. It was due to the adaptability of normal-type energy allowed for it to channel other types of energy such as ghost or dark-type energy. It would explain why normal-types could use a variety of elemental attacks and why other types of pokemon could use normal-type attacks. Of course, it brought more questions about how it was possible and even bring up the mystery behind why Eevee could evolve, theoretically, evolve into any type of pokemon.

Vali pushed those thoughts from her mind since now wasn't the time to wonder about that kind of stuff. Instead, she picked up Pikachu and headed back into the pokemon center. They had videos and articles to view in order to get an understanding about how exactly Slam worked. While the principle of the move was simple, it was best to watch it in action. With any luck, Pikachu would be able to learn it pretty quickly.

* * *

Due to her excitement over Pikachu being with her once more, Vali had forgotten about the glass Aggron she'd gotten Steven until she came across it while going through the things she'd gotten from the festival. She stared at it for a few moments before deciding that she'd send it home and have Delia keep it safe. While she knew that Steven would like it, they were on a journey and it was likely going to break. At least this way, she could make it his Christmas present and it wouldn't get broken since Delia would place it somewhere Ash wouldn't be able to get his hands on it. While Ash wouldn't mean to do it, he would likely accidentally knock it down or Pidgey would somehow do it.

Using a pair of her old shirts that needed to be thrown out due to how worn and ripped up they were from her journey so far, Vali wrapped up the Aggron and placed it into the box she was sending home that had a thick layer of packing peanuts. She then put everything else she was sending home into the box alongside the photos she was sending home. Once it was full, she put the rest of her packing peanuts into the box before closing it. She then turned to do the same with the box she was sending to Professor Oak though she didn't use any packing peanuts since she didn't have anything breakable in it. As soon as everything was packed up and correctly labeled, she headed to the post office.

While Celina could probably deliver everything, Vali didn't want to risk her pokemon's health or the packages since it took special training to be a mail pokemon. Entering the post office, she offered a smile to the clerk as he said, "Sending off some mail?"

"One package is going to my family back in Pallet and the other is going to Professor Oak," Vali answered as she set the packages onto the counter.

Taking out her wallet, Vali listed as the clerk began to weigh the packages and scan them, "Christmas gifts for the family?"

"Somewhat. Some of them are just some souvenirs for my little brother and his best friend," Vali ran a hand through her hair, "Not sure how much they deserve them though since those two get into way too much trouble for a pair of four year olds,"

The clerk let out a laugh, "Well, kids that age do tend to get into."

"Not the kind of trouble they regularly get into," Vali was glad that they were in school now since it meant they had less time to get into trouble.

The clerk finished with the first box and moved onto the next one, "Well at least they'll be somewhat prepared for their journeys," The clerk glanced at her, "So are you here for the Safari-zone or the gym?"

"Both," Vali held up her camera, "I'm mostly hoping to take some good pictures of the Safari-Zone,"

The clerk finished up, "Your sending these to Pallet town, right?" Vali nodded as the clerk began to type things into the computer, "That will be 600 poke. 750 to have it delivered within a day."

Pulling out the six hundred, Vali handed it over, "Can you mark the one I'm sending to Delia Ketchum as fragile?"

"Of course," The clerk took the money and typed on his computer, "Here is your receipt," A receipt printed out and he handed it over, "Anything else that I can do for you today?"

"No," Vali turned and began leaving, "Thank you for your help,"

"Please come again," The clerk said.

* * *

"So the gym also acts as a ninja academy?" Steven asked as they left the gym.

Vali nodded as she marked the date of her battle against Koga in her pokedex, "Yup and a good portion of those that graduate end up becoming ACEs, Policemen, or join the international police. It's one of the things that have been around for generations," She put her pokedex away, "The Rangers have a similar training program apparently only its a lot tougher,"

"It makes a lot of sense," Steven looked around them as they began heading towards the road that led towards the Safari-zone, "I'm surprised that the League don't have some kind of gate set up to prevent non-trainers from going near the Safari-zone,"

"There's a barrier around it, a group of Alakazam and a few other psychic-types fool the non-trainers into thinking the road doesn't exist," Vali explained as they passed an ACE trainer, "If someone accidentally ends up passing through the barrier, the ACE trainers will be alerted and the nearest one will direct them away," She gestured to a Ranger that was leaning against one of the lamp posts, "A group of Rangers also patrols the area though they stay more towards the Safari-zone. Given that the Safari-zone also acts as a sanctuary for rare/endangered pokemon, they have to keep those with bad intentions away,"

"It seems like its one of the more boring jobs," Steven commented as they began to see the main building of the Safari-zone.

"You'd think that, but not really. According to Sirius, it's actually one of the more exciting ones since you have to deal with poachers, idiotic trainers that can't take a hint, wild pokemon that doesn't exactly like humans, and things like that," Vali grinned a bit, "Sure there are times when it's pretty dull, but the times when it isn't more than make up for it,"

Soon enough, they reached the doors of the Safari-zone and head inside. A ranger stood at the front desk looking bored though it changed into an expression of surprise and joy the moment they caught sight of Vali, "If it ain't little Vali! I wasn't expectin' you of all people ta come in here for a little while given that ya started a bit late."

"Hey, Gus," Vali greeted the bright green haired Ranger with a light grin, "I wasn't expecting to see you here either since Sirius said you'd gotten pulled for Mount Moon duty,"

"Got that bit o'Taros shit done not long before that fire by the Lieutenant's city," Gus' bright orange eyes narrowed, "Ya got involved with that bit o'shit, didn' ya?"

Vali nodded as she walked up to the front desk, "Yeah, but I ended up getting a Vulpix egg out of it."

Gus let out a roar of laughter, "Tha' was you? Damn girl, ya sure know how ta git inta weird situations."

Vali shrugged, "My lucks fucked up sometimes," She looked at Steven, "Steven, this is Gus Whitlock. He's one of the rangers that work with Sirius fairly often. Gus, this is Steven Stone. He's my traveling partner."

"Ah, the boy tha' got Siri inta a big ol' tizzy afore ya left on yer journey," Gus grinned brightly revealing a missing tooth, "Nice ta meetcha, Steven. Call me Gus,"

"Nice to meet you as well," Steven offered Gus a polite smile.

Gus snorted before looking at Vali, "So ya here ta go inta the zones?"

"Yup," Vali nodded as she showed Gus her camera, "Going to take as many pictures as I can to send home and maybe find a few new members of my family along the way. I'll probably be taking a few trips before we leave Fuchsia,"

Gus shook his head with a fond smile, "Right. You can take two pokemon inta the zones wit ya. The rest gotta be put into the storage area. Ya can't attack the pokemon, but yer pokemon can protect ya if yer attacked. Ya'll get thirty safari balls, a pound of bait, and a map. Ya'll have 4 hours and thirty minutes to catch any pokemon."

* * *

They sat through the thirty minute safety discussion and given a list of zones that they could go through. They also ended up signing a waiver explaining that they understood the risks of the Safari-zone and that the league wasn't responsible for them if something happened. After some discussion, Steven and Vali chose to go through the Mountain-zone. Safety in numbers and the fact that Steven didn't really have any pokemon he wanted to catch at the moment were the biggest reason they were going together. He would also have an easier time finding problems with the zone than Vali would since he'd grown up around mountains. While he didn't know the mountains they were going into, he did have some idea of what things should be like since some of the zone was made to resembled some of the mountains found in Hoenn.

After getting the Safari balls, bait, and map, they headed out with the other trainers going to the mountains few as there were. They got onto these jeeps that would take them to the base of the mountains. Some of those with them were heading into the caves to look for pokemon while others were just going to be climbing. One of their traveling partners was a painter that was hoping to get some inspiration for his newest painting. One was a scientist hoping to gather some rock samples to hopefully find out how pokemon from other regions managed to survive without much human interference.

Once the jeep arrived at the sight, they all filed out and the rangers gave them a warning final warning along with a tracking band that would ensure that they could be found if they didn't return after the time limit had been reached. Vali fiddled with the band for a few moments before looking up at the mountain, "So how do you want to do this?"

"Let's just pick a direction and go with it," Steven suggested as he released Metagross.

"Sounds good," Vali gestured to the slight incline not far from them that went north into the mountains, "That way sound good?"

"Sure," Steven shrugged and they started walking after she released Balto.

Vali had chosen Balto because he would be able to smell if something was wrong. She'd chosen Celina after debating about it as her second pokemon. Celina could fly and would give them an aerial view if they needed it. She would have chosen Smaug, but he was still a bit too shaky on his flying and she wouldn't be able to rid on his back for another four months while he finished growing into his full size. If they tried, it would be detrimental to his growth and general health.

* * *

Vali took a picture of a few Geodude while making note of the fact that there were a few Alolan ones in the batch which probably came from a fairly recent transfer between regions. She glanced towards Steven when she finished and found him studying what looked like a hoof print embedded into the stone. She walked over and took a closer look at it, "That looks like a Camerupt hoof print, the depth and the burn on the stone means its a pretty young one. Must've evolved within the last couple of weeks if not sooner."

"How do you know that?" Steven asked as she bent down to feel if there was any heat coming off of the stone.

"About four months before my journey, one of the older trainers ended up catching a Camerupt for Professor Oak to study," Vali's fingers felt like they'd been dipped into a steaming hot bath only without the water, "It was foul tempered and constantly tired to run away. I got pretty good at tracking it down with some of Professor Oak's aids and Balto. Based on the heat coming off of this print, I'd say it left about thirty minutes ago give or take a few. Given that they only travel quickly when they need to, I'd say it's about half a mine away," She took a picture of the print and looked around for a few second before spotting another one, "It's heading East. Likely heading for a natural hot-spot like a hot-springs or something. Due to the fact they literally have magma boiling inside of them, they have fur that expels heat alongside the hole on top of their humps. Because of this, they'll have a hard time surviving a Kanto winter though thankfully it'll be easier than a Johto one. Thankfully, they can sense natural heat sources and are able to find them pretty quick which means they'll likely survive,"

"Do you want to try and catch this one?" Steven asked her curiously as she stood up.

Vali shook her head, "I'd prefer catching a Numel. They are far less temperamental than a Camerupt and less set in their ways. They're also easier to work with than a Camerupt who'll be more likely to use a Flamethrower on you if you're doing something they don't like. And even if I have my inner fire, I'd prefer not to see if I'd get burned or not if a pokemon using a fire-type move can hurt me."

Vali would prefer to put that off as much as possible if given half a chance. Steven grimaced at her words, "That would be a better idea."

"Though I do want to go take a few pictures of the Camerupt, we might end up finding some Numel and I can see if one wants to come with me," Vali said as Steven stood up and dusted himself off.

Following the Camerupt was easy, they moved slowly when there wasn't a need for speed and they tended to let off steam fairly often. They managed to find the Camerupt after a forty-five minutes of walking and ended up find a hot-spring with multiple pokemon around it. Other than the Camerupt they were following, a handful of Numel, Torkal, Aipom, Machop, and a few other pokemon were settled around the hot-springs. Vali immediately began taking pictures as Steven muttered, "So many pokemon of various species."

"Based on the fact they're gathering food, I think this is where they're planning on spending the winter which is fairly smart especially since the Whooper and other water-types in the water can provide fresh drinking water," Vali took a picture of one Aipom getting sprayed in the face by a Whopper and giggled a bit, "So cute,"

Taking out her journal once she got enough pictures, Vali began to take notes on what was occurring below them. It was always interesting to see pokemon of various species from diffrent regions acting in harmony with one another. It was moments like this that people truly saw that many pokemon were more than the animal-like creatures they resemble. It was especially exciting to see wild pokemon act like this. Eventually, one of the pokemon noticed their presence and alerted the others. They got hostile until Balto and Metagross quickly explained that the two weren't really interested in catching any of the pokemon there. From what Metagross translated the wild pokemon settled down, they made it known that she wanted a Numel, but wouldn't be catching any without their consent.

A majority of the wild pokemon chose to ignore them while the more friendly ones got closer. Two of the Numel wandered over and began investigating Vali. She smiled while offering them some of the bait she'd been given and slowly they got comfortable with her. By the time they had to leave, one of the Numel managed to get into her bag and capture itself in one of the Safari balls much to her surprise. Both humans stared at the pokeball as it shook with Steven commenting, "Well that isn't something you see every day."

"Yeah," Vali shook her head and bent down to pick up the pokeball, "Welcome to the family, Numel,"

Granted, Numel wouldn't officially be her pokemon until Vali brought it to the front desk back in the welcome center and had it registered as hers. She let Numel out to say its goodbyes then returned it when it was time to go. Steven spoke as they made their way down the mountain, "I've heard of things like that happening, but it's never happened to me."

"I'm just happy I've got a new family member to train and raise," Vali grinned brightly, "And one of the pokemon I've been wanting for awhile,"

"At the very least, we won't have to worry too much once it starts to snow seeing as your fire-types will probably put off enough heat to keep us warm without a camp fire," Steven commented with a snicker.

Vali snorted at that, "Probably."

Vali was about to say something else when Balto began barking in alarm seconds before the ground beneath them gave out plunging them into darkness as a roar echoed through the air. She recalled Balto not wanting him to get hurt by the fall. The sensation of falling slowly died down as Metagross' psychic power curled around her just as it did around Steven. Rather than float them upwards, Metagross took them deeper into the darkness as Steven asked, "Metagross, what is going on?"

 _"A rock-snake is battling a group of iron tunnelers,"_ Metagross replied as they entered a cave coated in what looked like glowing bluish green crystals, " _It is too dangerous to go near them,"_

Iron tunnelers? Vali ran that through her mind before coming up with a possible pokemon, "You mean an Onix got into a fight with some Durant?"

 _"Yes,"_ Metagross floated them onto the floor of the cavern and released them.

"What are Durant doing in Kanto? I mean this is the Safari-zone, but still," Steven asked as with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm not sure, but it'll be something I'm going to talk to Professor Oak about since Durant aren't allowed in Kanto unless they're a trainers pokemon due to the fact that can ruin the ecosystem," Vali looked around them, "How far down are we?"

 _"Thirty-five feet below the surface,"_ Metagross answered as Vali took out her camera to take pictures of the cavern.

"And where is the nearest exit other than the one above us?" Steven asked as she moved to take a closer look at the crystals on the wall.

 _"Twenty feet south, we do not sense any hostiles in that direction,"_ Metagross settled on their legs.

"So that means we'll be heading south," Steven looked at the crystals, "What are those? I've never seen crystals like this before,"

Vali looked at him in surprise before focusing back on the crystals feeling her magic buzz underneath her skin. It wasn't a painful buzz, but it caused her some discomfort. She reached the nearest crystal and placed her gloved hand on it which immediately caused the excited buzzing of her magic to increase into a fever pitch. The crystal underneath her hand began to turn a bright fiery red lined with orange, bright green, white, and bright blue. Fawkes' feather warmed against her skin and began to glow beneath her shirt. It was when fire began to gather around her fingers and start going up her arm that she pulled away causing everything to return to almost normal. She said almost normal because her magic continued to buzz beneath her skin though it was thankfully far less energetic. She looked at her hand as she murmured, "Definitely not touching those with my bare hands," She looked back at the crystal than at Steven, "Got any spare vials? I think Professor Oak needs to be made away of this."

Vali let Steven start collecting the samples while she wrote as many notes about the cavern as possible since it was definitely something Professor Oak needed to know about. After she was done, she began helping Steven collect more samples. It was due to an impulse that Vali couldn't really control that she pocketed a decent sized chunk of the crystal which would be stored in her storage device the moment she could. When she looked at Steven, she froze only to relax when he showed her a decent sized chunk of his own which he pocketed moments later. They placed the vials of crystal they'd gathered into one of Steven's storage devices and followed Metagross to the exit. She looked back at the cave once they left and wondered over just what those crystals were. Why had they made her magic buzz?

* * *

Steven glanced at Vali as they made their way down the mountain wondering what exactly had happened. He had never seen any crystal like those or seen something like that happen before. Normally, he would feel some excitement over finding something like this since it was a new type of stone/crystal, but it just filled him with trepidation. The way they had reacted to Vali and her phoenix feather were the main causes of his trepidation along with the instinctive knowledge that he likely would have never come across the cavern without her around. He'd never seen Vali's eyes glow that bright fiery green that they had or seen the pulsing veins of energy form along her face. He'd never seen the phoenix feather glow or really react to anything. What exactly did it mean for Vali?

* * *

Gus looked them over with a raised eyebrow, "Run inta violent pokemon?"

"No, we had to go around a group of quarreling ones," Vali answered as she handed over Numel's pokemon, "I ended up getting a Numel,"

"Notta bad pokemon," Gus placed the Safari ball onto a scanner, "Dex?" Vali handed it over and Gus slid it into a slot on the computer, "Now ah just gotta get this info transferred," Gus fiddled with the computer for a few moments before it dinged and the Safari ball was coated in bright white light before settling down, "And there ya go,"

Gus handed both the pokedex and pokeball back to Vali, "Come again soon."

"I will," Vali nodded as she took the items, "Thanks Gus,"

"No problem," Gus waved her off.

They left the Safari-zone after collecting their pokemon and made their way back to the pokemon center. Steven spoke as they got back to Fuchsia, "Do you think the Rangers and ACEs know about the Durant?"

"Probably not otherwise the Durant would already have been captured," Vali shook her head lightly, "I just can't figure out why anyone would bring Durant to a Kanto Reserve. It's not like they're endangered or anything since they breed like any other bug-type pokemon,"

"Maybe it has something to do with those crystals," Steven commented earning a shrug from her.

"Maybe," Vali shook her head, "But that'll be up to the Professor to figure out,"

* * *

The first thing Vali did after returning to the pokemon center was have Balto and Numel looked over by Nurse Joy. While she could have waited to have Balto checked over, she was worried that he might've gotten hurt by the fall before she managed to return him. She had Nurse Joy look over Numel both to ensure her newest pokemon was healthy and to give her time to explain everything to the rest of her pokemon. After that, she went up to her room and put the crystal into her storage device before taking a much needed shower. She quickly discovered that she'd gotten multiple scrapes from either the climb or the fall before Metagross managed to catch her. Taking great care to clean them up as much as possible, she used the med-kit all pokemon centers stocked for the traveling trainers and began taking care of them. Once that was done, she headed downstairs to call Professor Oak.

After about five minutes of waiting, Professor Oak answered the phone, "Hello, Vali. How was your first trip through the Safari-zone?"

"Interesting, we chose to check out the mountain section," Vali settled heavily in the comfortable chair that all private call booths had, "I managed to catch a Numel and got to study a group of diffrent species of pokemon preparing for the winter,"

"I can't wait to read about it," Professor Oak smiled brightly, "Though that isn't the only reason you called me, was it?"

Vali shook her head as she took out her notes on the cave, "The Safari-zone apparently has a colony of Durant."

"What?!" Professor Oak looked aghast at the prospect, "Are you sure?"

Vali nodded lightly, "I didn't see one, but Metagross sensed them. They called them 'Iron Tunnelers' and I guessed that they'd sensed Durant which was confirmed by them. They were battling an Onix when we ended up falling thirty-five feet below the ground into a cavern. Thankfully, Metagross kept either of us from getting hurt too much. I got a bunch of scrapes as well as have a few bruises show up come morning, but we're all okay."

"I am definitely going to be setting up an investigation," Professor Oak frowned darkly, "Did you find anything else?"

"The cavern we ended up in was coated in these strange bluish green crystals," Vali answered earning a confused look, "Steven didn't recognize them, so we're sending a bunch of samples we collected to you. There's something odd about them, my magic was buzzing beneath my skin the entire time we were in the cavern. I touched one with my gloved hand and the buzzing of my magic immediately got worse though it wasn't painful. The crystal underneath my hand began to turn a bright fiery red lined with orange, bright green, white, and bright blue. The oddest part was when Fawkes' feather warmed up and began to glow underneath my shirt. I didn't pull away my hand until fire began to form beneath my hand and crawl up my arm,"

"I've never heard of anything like that happening, but then again, everything to do with your inner fire and magic is pretty much new," Professor Oak gained a contemplative look, "Did it react to your inner fire or just your magic?"

"Probably both though I didn't really feel my inner fire reacting to anything," Vali ran a hand through her hair, "You should have Sirius test if it reacts to him too. If it does, we might just have managed to find a new conduit to use our magic as we once did,"

"I will," Professor Oak looked excited at the prospect, "This will be interesting,"

"Steven and I though that the Durant might be in the Safari-zone because of those crystals," Vali offered making Professor Oak frown again.

"You two might be right," Professor Oak said, "I will look into it. Continue your investigation into the Safari-zone,"

"I will. Maybe I'll end up finding more places like that cavern," Vali said earning a nod.

"Please send those crystals soon, I want to start the research on them. If you can, please take a few pictures of the Durant at some point," Professor Oak told her, "I want to have proper evidence of their presence,"

"Of course," Vali wanted a closer look at them at some point since it was rare that she ever came into contact with them.

"Thank you, Vali. Have a good night and congratulations on gaining another member of your family," Professor Oak offer her a tired smile.

"You two, Professor. Thank you," Vali replied before ending the call.

After getting her pokedex back, Vali headed to the stairs and found Steven walking down them carrying two packages. Steven smiled as he caught sight of her, "I've got half the crystal samples in the top and half in the bottom. I figured it might be a good idea to send some to Professor Rowan."

"Probably," Vali agreed as she took one of the packages from him, "Let's get these sent off, Nurse Joy might be finished checking over Balto and Numel by the time we come back,"

They left the pokemon center with Vali leading the way to the Post Office, "You're having Balto checked over? I can understand Numel being that it's a new pokemon, but why Balto?"

"I want to ensure that he didn't get hurt during the time it took for me to return him while we were falling," Vali really hoped Balto hadn't been hurt, "Considering the fact I found quite a few scratches during my shower, I think it was a very good idea,"

Steven winced at that, "I really wish we'd been a bit more careful."

"Yes, but there was no way for us to know it was going to happen," Vali told him, "Besides, I'm kind of glad it happened. We never would have found that cave otherwise,"

* * *

After dropping off the packages and paying for same day shipping, they returned to the Pokemon center with Vali going to retrieve her pokemon. Nurse Joy had finished with Balto, but wanted to keep Numel over night to be thorough as they did with all pokemon that came from the Safari-zone. Thankfully, Balto only had a few bumps and bruises that were easily treated with some potions. Collecting Balto, she headed to one of the training grounds and called out her pokemon. Everyone looked at her with eager curiosity and she told them, "We have a new member of the family," Everyone looked around to see if they could find the new comer before looking back at her in confusion, "They're currently being checked over by Nurse Joy. I want to make sure they're healthy like I did with each of you. Now, I wanted to talk to you a bit about the newbie before you meet them, okay?" Everyone settled down, "The new comer is a Numel which is a pokemon species from Hoenn like Steven's older pokemon are. They're a fire/ground-type and only evolve once," She took out her pokedex and looked up Numel before showing it to everyone, "This is Numel."

Everyone crowded around her and Idril made a confused sounding chitter while pointing at the hole on Numel's back, "That's there to allow them to give off the extra heat their bodies produce, they have magma inside of them," Vali smiled at their surprised looks, "They can do it due to their dual typing though it makes them a bit more vulnerable to water-type and ice-type attacks. The reason being is that if the magma cools, Numel slow down until it heats up again. I'm going to need all of you to help Numel keep warm during the winter to ensure they don't get too cold to move," Determined nods were given, "Now, Numel is a bit slow compared to most pokemon. The best comparison is Slowpoke though Numel are a bit better than them. I need you guys to be nice and explain things if Numel gets confused which brings me to why I'm telling you all this," Everyone got serious, "While I doubt Numel will attack anyone, they were a wild pokemon up until now and I don't want you guys to startle it. Do not crowd around them, I'll introduce you to them one by one, okay?" Everyone nodded slowly, "Do not be aggressive with them, I don't want a fight," She relaxed when they nodded again, "Good, I'll introduce you guys later. For now, I just want to spend some quality time with you all and relax a bit since today has been pretty interesting."

At their curious looks, Vali told them about everything that had happened today with Balto offering his own opinions. She ended up settled back against Smaug's side while he curled up behind her and she leaned into his warm body with a smile as her pokemon settled down around her.

* * *

 _Flashes of fire and glowing bluish green crystals turning fiery red..._

 _A black staff that stood taller than she was topped with the crystal that had been carved into a perfect circle..._

 _A woman with bright red hair and silvery green eyes..._

 _An army of people and pokemon marching forward..._

 _The woman extending a black staff topped with a sun made of the crystal forward..._

 _A screeching cry echoing through the air as a form enveloped in flames flying forward..._

 _A battlefield engulfed in flames..._

 _Plants slowly growing from charred earth..._

 _A musical cry echoing through the air_

Vali choked back a gasp as her eyes snapped open and she pressed a hand to her chest. What the hell was that? A new vision? If so, what the hell did it mean?

* * *

Vali collected Numel from Nurse Joy the next morning. Other than a few nutritional issues that could be corrected with some vitamins and time, Numel was in perfect health. She headed to one of the isolated training grounds to make sure Numel wouldn't get too startled by the change in scenery and no one would likely end up stumbling on them. She released everyone and they knew what to do thus resulting them settling down in various areas around the training ground without being to close to her or the place she'd release Numel. Once everyone was settled down in various areas around the training ground, she released Numel for the first time since leaving the Safari-zone. Numel shook its head for a few moments to clear it before focusing on her, "Hey, Numel," She bent down to pet Numel's head earning a coo of enjoyment from the humped pokemon, "I wanted you to meet the rest of my family, okay? They're not going to attack you, so please don't attack them," She spoke slowly and clearly to ensure that Numel understood, "Okay?" Numel nodded and she pointed to each member of her family, "You already know Balto," Balto barked in greeting and licked Numel's cheek earning a surprised look from the fire/ground-type, "This Charizard is Smaug," Smaug spat a few embers towards the ground after eyeing the slow creature, "That big Pidgeot is Celina," Celina hopped up and cooed down at the Numel before backing away, "The next is Pikachu," Pikachu walked over and patted Numel's cheek prompting Numel to lick Pikachu's cheek much the electric-types disgust, "The Eevee, is Eevee," Eevee looked at Numel for a few moments before nodding his head, "The shiny Sandshrew is Idril," Idril shyly waved in greeting from beside Terra, "The Ponyta is Arwen," Arwen nickered as she trotted over to nuzzle Numel earning a coo from the fire/ground-type, "The Larvitar is Terra," Terra waved at Numel, "We have one more family member, but they haven't been born just yet," Vali took off her bag and pulled out the incubator before taking the Vulpix egg out, "This is our other family member, they're going to be born soon," Numel came close to the egg with wide eyes and nudged it lightly before cooing in delight, "I'm glad you're happy. It's nice to have another member of our family."

Vali sat down with the egg in her lap as Numel was drawn to each of it's new family members. Eevee quickly settled beside her clearly not feeling up to socializing with Numel at the moment. She reached out and gently began scratching behind Eevee's ears making him stiffen for a moment before he relaxed. It was a testament of how far they'd both come that he was even allowing it. She sighed softly earning a look from Eevee prompting her to say, "I'm really glad that you're healing, Eevee. You've come really far since the day I rescued you."

Eevee nodded slightly before looking back towards Numel.

* * *

With her curiosity burning through her, Vali took out her pokedex once everyone had gotten to know Numel and scanned it:

 _Numel, the Numb Pokemon._ _Numel is extremely dull witted—it doesn't notice being hit. However, it can't stand hunger for even a second. This pokemon's body is a seething cauldron of boiling magma. The magma in its body reaches 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit. Its hump gets smaller when it uses Fire-type moves. If it gets wet, the magma cools and hardens. In that event, the pokemon's body grows heavy and its movements become sluggish. It is a hardy pokemon that can transport a 220-pound load. It has served humans at work since long ago._

 _This Numel is Female and has the ability Oblivious. This Numel knows the moves Growl, Tackle, Ember, Focus Energy, Magnitude, Earth Power, and Heat Wave._

Vali looked at her newest family member with some surprise, "Not a bad move set to work with, Numel," Numel blinked at her for a few moments before letting out a satisfied coo, "Do you want a nickname?" Numel slowly registered her words before nodding with an excited look in her eyes, "Okay lets see..."

Eventually, they settled on Pele mostly because it was simple enough for Numel to remember and Camerupt were known for being able to set off volcanoes if they were pissed off enough. Vali didn't think any names from Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit fit Numel very well besides Pele was a goddess associated with volcanoes as far as she remembered from that one mythology class they'd had back in primary school. Either way, Pele liked her new name quite a bit and would probably never listen to another one.

Vali had the newly named Pele show off her abilities while making plans for her to teach Heat Wave to some of the other pokemon. She was surprised that the Safari-zone managed to get a Numel of all pokemon with Heat Wave as its egg move, but probably shouldn't be. After all, it was the only place to get Dratini in Kanto unless you managed to get to the Celadon Game Corner during the few times they had them and manage to win enough coins to buy it. Then again, it is the same place where some stupidly released a colony of Durant in Kanto without any Heatmor around to keep the population somewhat in check, so some surprise was warranted. Though it did make her wonder how the Rangers haven't noticed, it was pretty damn obvious that Durant were present in the mountain zone, so why hadn't they noticed.

* * *

Vali spent her mornings training with her pokemon and the afternoons exploring the Safari-zone. She learned quite a bit about Pele during the time they spent bonding while her newest pokemon worked on perfecting her skills. Pele's strongest attributes were her defense, endurance, and wide spread attacks. Pele's weakest were her stamina, physical strength, and accuracy. Everything else was pretty much in the middle. Thankfully, Pele was fairly calm and didn't seem to get frustrated. The Numel was also quite enthusiastic about training so long as she kept things simple and offered treats. Out of all her pokemon, Pele was the most motivated by food which was a new experience for the fire-type master-in-training. Granted it wasn't really a problem, she was just surprised to find a pokemon that was motivated by wanting to eat.

It took a week for Vali to get through the Safari-zone after the first visit and she ended up finding two more new pokemon for her family. The first new pokemon she came across was an energetic and clumsy Shinx. She came across the Flash pokemon while walking through the Forest-zone. He'd somehow managed to get stuck in a log that was trapped between two boulders. With Balto's help, she got him free and healed him up before moving on only for the little guy to follow her. Eventually, she offered him a chance to join her family and he jumped at the chance. He'd pretty much decided that Eevee was his new best friend the moment they first met. While Eevee acted like he didn't like it, he didn't seem to mind too much.

The second new pokemon was a female Bagon that had been attempting to catch one of the water-type pokemon in the Lake-zone for food. Seeing the rather poor shape the Rock Head pokemon had been in, Vali offered Bagon some of her bait much to the dragon-type's suspicion. The dragon-type had ignored the bait until a Whooper decided to take the snack only to end up being fought off. She didn't stay with the Bagon deciding not to press the issue and moved onto the next area. She ended up catching the Rock Head pokemon two days later when Bagon refused to let her leave without taking her with her.

Once everything had settled down and her pokemon had gotten to know one another with Bagon seemingly developing a crush on Smaug, Vali scanned her knew pokemon and gave them both names:

 _Shinx, the Flash Pokemon._ _The extension and contraction of its muscles generates electricity. Its fur glows when it's in trouble. It flees while the foe is momentarily blinded._

 _This Shinx is Male and has the ability Intimidate. This Shinx knows Tackle, Leer, Charge, Baby-Doll Eyes, Spark, Bite, and Ice Fang._

 _Bagon, the Rock Head Pokemon. Bagon has a dream of one day soaring in the sky. In doomed efforts to fly, this Pokémon hurls itself off cliffs. As a result of its dives, its head has grown tough and as hard as tempered steel. In an attempt to dispel its frustration, it will slams its hard head against huge rocks and shatters them into pebbles. Some theories suggest that its behavior of forcefully bashing its head into things stimulates cells that affect its evolution._

 _This Bagon is Female and has the ability Rock Head*. This Bagon knows Rage, Ember, Headbutt, Dragon Rush, and Fire Fang._

 _*Changes upon final evolution._

Shinx ended up being called Pippin/Pip after one of her favorite Hobbits from Lord of the Rings and Bagon chose Empress after thirty minutes of going over names. One of the things Vali was definitely going to do upon meeting Lance again was ask how best to care for the newly named Empress. While she could probably handle it with little problem, she wanted to avoid making too many mistakes when it came to her first dragon-type.

* * *

Pele blinked and looked at her side where Empress had just slammed into her with Headbutt. Pressing a hand over her mouth as Empress gaped at Pele in shock, Vali struggled not to laugh at the little dragon who clearly didn't expect the camel-like pokemon to be unfazed by the attack. She grabbed her camera and took a picture quickly before returning it to her pocket as she said, "Empress, you're going to have to hit harder than that. Numel aren't really fazed back attacks unless they actually hurt," Empress growled and backed up a bit, "Pele," Pele looked at her slowly, "Did you feel Empress hit you?" Pele nodded slowly after a moment, "If you feel something hit you during a battle, you need to hit it back," Pele nodded and looked back at Empress, "Now, let's try this again you two. Empress, use Headbutt. Pele, use Tackle on Empress."

Empress charged towards Pele with a slightly glowing head clearly intent on causing some pain. Pele focused on Empress and slammed forward once Empress was close. The two attack collided and seemed to be at a stalemate for a few moments Pele managed to overpower the Headbutt and send Empress stumbling back with a cry of shock. Pele looked at Vali as Empress landed on her butt and she said, "Good job, Pele. Here," She tossed Pele an Oran berry that the Numel devoured quickly, "Empress," Empress pushed herself up and looked at the witch in irritation, "Take a deep breath and calm down, you aren't going to win a battle if you allow your frustration to take you over," Empress snarled at her, "How about you take a break? Pippin needs to take his turn."

Empress glared at Vali before heading to one of the boulders littering the training ground and began banging her head against it. The witch felt a bit of irritation, but pushed it down knowing that she couldn't let it get to her. Turning to Pippin who was bouncing in place, she smiled, "Alright, Pippin. Let's see how you do against Pele," Pippin tripped over his own feet in his eagerness to battle, "Pippin, slow down. Pele isn't going anywhere," Pippin meowed at her before settling across from Pele with a determined look in his eyes, "Alright, Pippin let's start with something she should notice. Use Ice Fang. Pele," Pele looked at Vali curiously, "Try Earth Power to keep him away."

Pippin darted forward with his fangs glowing an electric blue. Pele lifted her hoof and slammed it onto the ground causing the ground underneath Pippin to open. Pippin let out a yowl of surprise as the ground underneath him disappeared before vanishing into the ground. He let out a cry of pain prompting Pele to stamp her hoof on the ground. The ground rumbled a bit and Pippin reappeared showing that the earth beneath him was being raised. Pippin stumbled forward with a shake of his head. Vali frowned slightly, "You okay, Pippin?"

Pippin nodded and focused on Pele with determination in his eyes. He darted forward with glowing electric blue fangs and bit down on Pele's causing the Numel's eyes to widen in surprised pain. Pele let out a cry of pain and began trying to shake off Pippin. Pippin got shaken off and ended up getting an Ember to the face for his troubles causing the Shinx to stumble backward. Pippin tripped on a rock and ended up sprawled on the ground with a low meow. Vali made her way over to him while tossing Pele another berry and began checking him over. Thankfully, Pippin's fur was only slightly singed and he seemed to be in fairly good condition. She checked over Pele and found that the ice had stayed on the surface of her skin. Pippin had caused a somewhat deep puncture, but that would be easily fixed with some potions or a trip to Nurse Joy.

Steven walked over as she stood up, "How goes training?"

"Not bad," Vali heard the low rumble of thunder and looked up to see dark clouds moving across the sky, "We should probably head inside. It's going to start raining soon," She returned Pele and Pippin, "Empress," Empress paused in the middle of reducing a second boulder into rubble and looked at her, "We need to head inside. It's going to start raining soon and I don't want anyone to get sick," Empress looked back at the boulder, "You can turn that one into rubble later. I promise we'll come back outside once the rain stops,"

Empress gained a satisfied look on her face and made her way over to Vali. The witch quickly began returning the rest of her pokemon and just managed it before rain finally began to fall. She ran towards the side entrance of the Pokemon Center and got inside along with Steven as lightning flashed across the sky. She dropped Pele off with Nurse Joy before taking a seat by one of the TVs. Steven commented, "I didn't see rain on the forecast."

"Me either," Vali frowned as she looked at the TV which was running a blooper reel of the latest contests in Sinnoh, "It could be that a pokemon used Rain Dance too close to the ocean. Storms have been caused by that before,"

"Whatever the reason, it looks like we're probably going to be stuck inside for a little while," Steven shook his head at the TV which showed a Munchlax colliding with a Meowth causing their attack to blow up in the middle of their Appeals round.

"I'm going to go look up videos on Koga's past gym battles," Vali answered as she got up, "What about you?"

"I think I'm just going to sit here for a little while," Steven took out his pokenav, "I might as well see if I can find any new bugs,"

"Have fun," Vali headed towards the computers.

* * *

From her research, Vali was able to conclude that Koga usually used between 4 and 5 pokemon per match unless it was for the last badge someone needed to qualify for the Indigo Plateau Conference. For those attempting to get their fifth badge, Koga only used 4 pokemon. The pokemon he commonly used for fifth badge battles were a Venonat, Venomoth, Ariados, and Weezing. It usually changed depending on the current season due to certain pokemon either going into hibernation, it was their mating season, or they were preparing for hibernation. With that in mind, she checked what Koga usually used during the fall season and found that he tended to use a Koffing instead of a Venonat and a Golbat instead of a Venomoth.

Thankfully, Vali wouldn't have too big of a problem outside of Golbat. Koffing and Weezing were highly vulnerable to fire-type pokemon due to the fact their internal gases were highly combustible. Ariados was a bug-type which put the battle mostly in her favor though she would definitely need to watch out for it's potent poison which was known to cause hallucinations and paralysis. Golbat would be the toughest opponent even if most wouldn't actually agree with her. If properly trained, they could be devastating on a battlefield especially if the battle was inside as most gym battles were. Most didn't train the Zubat-line because it too a lot of time, training, and effort to ensure the pokemon could function in sunlight, the only people that did were those on the League payroll like Koga or those that usually explored cave-like structures.

Seeing as there were rumors about Koga being ones of those considered for the Elite Four even if it would be years before anything like that happened, Vali would need to be extra careful during the gym battle. Poison-type pokemon were already something she was wary of, the pokemon trained by someone regarded as a master of the type was definitely something to be wary of. Based on the videos she saw, Koga was a lot like her when she battled. The man was sneaky in a way that appealed to her inner Slytherin which meant she'd have to pull out all the stops. That meant speedy pokemon, she'd have to talk to Professor Oak about switching Pikachu off of her inactive roster, but who would replace him? Celina? She wouldn't be able to reach her top speed in the gym and it would be easy enough to switch her back onto her inactive roster once everything was over. Mentally nodding to herself, she would need to speak with both parties.

And if Pikachu wanted, Vali would evolve him after the gym battle and, probably much needed, visit to the pokemon center.

* * *

Ash grinned as he held up the trophy he got during his class' sports day, "I got in second place, but it's still better than nothing. Right?"

"Right," Vali smiled at him as Balto sat in her lap, "And just think of every loss as a learning experience-"

"So I can do better next time," Ash finished with a cheeky smile as Pidgey cooed on his head, "I know, I know,"

"I can't wait to see the video when I come home," Vali told him making Ash lose his smile, "You okay, Ash?"

Ash looked a bit guilty, "Are you sure you'll be able to make it home for Christmas? Daisy never does."

Vali shook her head, "Ash, I will make it home for Christmas. It may not be on the exact day, but I will be home even if it means hiring a teleporting service to do it. I miss you and everyone else so much. I also need to make it home to get the Houndour egg Sirius promised me," She could see doubt shining in his eyes, "Ash, you know I'll do my best to make it home. Why are you doubting me?"

"It's just..." Ash trailed off before shaking his head, "Daisy always promises Gary that she'll be home for Christmas, but she never does. She's so busy with her journey that she seems to forget about everyone back here,"

"Ash, have I ever forgotten to call home when I get to a city?" Vali asked earning a head-shake, "Have I not been keeping up with news about you and everyone else back in Pallet Town?" Ash shook his head again, "Ash, I'm always going to make time for everyone even when I'm training for a gym battle. Don't you trust me?"

"I do," Ash shook his head wildly, "Of course I do, you're my big sister,"

"Then what made you doubt me?" Vali asked him with a frown.

Ash gained a troubled look on his face, "I...Gary...He told me that you would forget about us even when you send things home since Daisy does."

"Ash," Vali would need to tell Delia about this since it was definitely something that needed to be addressed by someone who was actually there, "Just because Daisy Oak gets so caught up in the stuff she does, it doesn't mean I will. I am not Daisy Oak, Ash. No matter what Gary says, I will never forget about home and everyone there. I know what its like to not have a true home or people that care about me,"

"I know," Ash looked less trouble, "Though it makes me feel bad for Gary,"

He frowned in concentration prompting Vali to ask, "What's up, Ash?"

"Vali, could you maybe check in on Gary too?" Ash asked earning a surprised look, "I just think that it might help Gary feel a bit less lonely. With Professor Oak and his sister being busy, he must feel a bit lonely when he isn't around me,"

"I can do that, Ash," Vali hadn't really been thinking about Gary all that much outside of getting him a souvenir or two, "I'll talk to Professor Oak and see about getting a number for his place so I can call Gary too,"

"Thanks Vali," Ash smiled in relief.

"I'll also talk to Professor Oak about seeing if Daisy can call home as well," Vali knew that it would probably do Daisy some good wherever she currently was, "Thank you for telling me about this,"

Ash grinned at her, "No problem, I know you want everyone to be as happy as possible without you being here."

"That I do," Vali spotted Delia walking into the room carrying the package she had sent home, "Looks like you've got something in the mail,"

Ash turned his head, "Cool! I can't wait to see whats inside! Bye, Vali."

"I think you'll definitely like your gift," Vali replied with a soft laugh, "Love you, Ash," She called out loudly enough to get Delia's attention, "See you later, Delia!"

"See you, Vali!" Delia called out.

Vali immediately dialed the Professor's number once she hung up. She managed to get into contact with Professor Oak a few minutes later, "Hello, Vali. This is a surprise, you usually give me one call a day when you do call the lab."

"I know," Vali decided to get right on with it, "Professor, I just finished talking to Ash and he mentioned something that Gary told him,"

"Oh?" Professor Oak gained a troubled look, "Is something wrong?"

"Do you know when the last time Daisy called home and actually talked to Gary?" Vali asked earning a frown.

Professor Oak's frown deepened after a few moments, "No, I can't really remember. She does call the lab twice a week to check in,"

"And does she ever make it home for Christmas?" Vali asked earning a wince, "Professor, I know that Daisy's busy with her own journey just like I am, but I really think she needs to come home for Christmas this year. With both of you busy and his parents not exactly in the picture, Gary is probably really lonely,"

Professor Oak sighed deeply, "You're probably right, Vali."

"It wasn't me that noticed it, but Ash, Professor," Vali corrected him, "Which brings me to the request I have. Can I have your home phone number so I can check in on Gary like I do with Ash?"

Professor Oak smiled and nodded, "Of course," Vali took out a pen and piece of paper before writing down the number as Professor Oak gave it, "Thank you for doing this Vali, I sometimes forget that Gary is just a child and needs to be around his family."

Vali nodded before grinning as a thought occurred to her, "Maybe all the stuff Ash and Gary get into is a way to get your attention~" She snickered as Professor Oak made of a face and groaned, "I've got a call to make. See you later, Professor."

"See you later, Vali," Professor Oak replied and the connection cut.

Vali dialed in the unfamiliar number and it was answered a few minutes later by Gary, "Hello-Vali?!"

"Hey, Gary," Vali grinned at the shocked boy, "How are you?"

"I'm good," Gary shook his head slightly, "Gramps isn't here if you're looking for him,"

Vali shook her head, "I'm not looking for him, Gary. I was actually hoping to check in on you."

Gary looked at her in shock, "You were?"

Vali nodded as Balto offered the boy a bark in greeting, "Balto wanted to say hi as well. I wanted to make sure you're doing alright since Ash seems to be doing well."

Gary flushed a bit, "I'm doing good."

"Oh? No subjects in school causing you any trouble?" Vali asked as she settled down for a talk with Gary.

Gary began shaking his head for a moment before nodding, "Uh...Yeah. I'm having some trouble with..."

* * *

Vali stood up after a much needed talk with Gary and headed to the lounge room. She sat down beside Steven, "That was a long talk, is everything okay?"

"It's fine," Vali leaned back in her seat as Balto flopped down next to her, "I ended up talking with Gary, he's Professor Oak's grandson who is Ash's best human friend,"

"Ah," Steven looked at her curiously, "Why were you talking with him?"

Vali began petting Balto as she said, "Ash brought up the fact that his sister doesn't seem to come home very often and I managed to figure out that she didn't call home. She only called the lab to check in with Professor Oak. I decided to talk with him since Ash thought he was lonely since everyone in his family that's around seems busy and his parents aren't really present in his life," She sighed softly, "I'm going to be making the same calls I do with Ash. After all, he's like another little brother to me and I really should've been doing this before. I feel kind of terrible that I haven't really talked with him since I left on my journey."

"Well, at the very least you're trying to make up for lost time," Steven commented as he looked back at his book, "Almost makes me wish I had an older sibling or something growing up. It would've been nice,"

"Same," Vali supposed that the twins and Oliver Wood had become something like her older brothers after awhile since they'd looked out for her as best they could during her school years.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997:** **I could have added more, but I felt that this was a good way to end it especially since I wanted to get this out before Christmas. I hope you guys enjoy it.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Twister60 : Thank you!**

 **AyameKitsune : Here it is.**

 **comodo50 : I'm glad you liked it. Any and all questions should be answered at some point in the future. I meant 'bugs' as in glitches for the pokenav. **

**Goldenfightergirl : That's something you'll have to find out later.**

 **frankieu : We'll have to wait and see.**

 **the lil witch: Glad to see that you liked it.**

 **Hollydoor : Always glad to hear that.**

 **akinomatis : Here it is.**

 **Lady Kaiki : Here it is**

 **Poseidon93 : Here it is.**

 **Jostanos : Sounds interesting. Maybe in a couple of months or when I get to the pokemon league we can talk. It's a pleasure to meet you Matsuo.**

 **AnonChan1 : Nice to see you again. Question 1: I think my favorite part of writing this story is Vali's close bond to her pokemon and seeing how I can flesh out their personalities. Question 2: Seeing as she'll be traveling with Ash, all of them eventually though Oblivia and Almia might happen before then though I'm not quite sure. Question 3: Yes, but I won't have them be the focal point. At least, in this story. Maybe in a sequel or one-shot...in the future.**

 **jiongu-naruto : You'll have to wait and see on that stuff.**

 **xirons20 : Glad to hear you liked it.**

 **Dark Wolf of Teros: Glad to hear you liked it. I agree though I haven't really played the Alolan games or any of the new ones. I will soon hopefully!**

 **HistoricasLP : I'm glad to hear you're liking the story. To be honest, I don't think we'll be traveling to another region in this story. We will definitely see Ash's journey with Vali though it will be its own little story. I promise you guys will see it though it might be a little while before that point once I finish this story where I do.**

 **Grunt Lord Ryan: An interesting concept for sure, maybe someone should write a fanfic about that at some point.**

 **LStilwell24 : Once a month is the update schedule. Eventually yes, but not for awhile since Vali is still physically ten.**

 **Emerald Time: Here's the next chapter. Yes, Eevee's decision is coming up. Yes, but I'm still debating on what to name him. **

**Queen of Darkness O. o : Here it is.**

 **BioHazard82 : Glad to hear it.**

 **Guest : I'm glad to hear that you like it and I'm trying, but sometimes it gets away from me since I don't have time to work on this until either after work or before it. Both times occur when I'm really tired. **

* * *

**Words: 18,878**

* * *

Chapter 12

* * *

"Double Team, Balto!" Vali commanded as she stood across from Steven on the battlefield.

Vali had finally gotten down to having Pikachu teach her other pokemon Double Team. To help perfect it and smooth out her skills, she had asked Steven for a few battles. Steven had agreed and here they were. Currently, they were facing against Steven's partner, his shiny Metagross, and Balto was doing fairly well against the older pokemon. Balto barked as copies of himself began to form around him and she was glad to see that they were forming within a few seconds of each other rather than every five seconds. With any luck, Balto would have the move down pat before their battle with Koga in a week and a half. Steven called out, "Not bad, he's getting faster. Metagross, let's get rid of the copies with Bullet Punch."

"Keep using Double Team, Balto," Vali commanded as Metagross began destroying the copies.

By continuously using Double Team, Balto was increasing both the speed used to create copies and the amount of copies that could be created during a period of time. It increased the pokemon's ability to to use it's latent psychic-type energy used to create the copies. While the move was considered and marked down as a normal-type move, it wasn't purely a normal-type move as it utilized the pokemon's latent psychic-type abilities in order to fully copy the pokemon as well as form the clones. Every pokemon had the ability to use psychic-type moves, but for some, it was a struggle to learn/use those moves due to lacking the potential. It all came down to how a pokemon utilized the pool of energy within them which is why a pokemon like Magikarp could turn into a Gyarados despite how weak it is during its first evolution. This is where trainers come in, they're supposed to help their pokemon reach their full potential through various methods. Of course, every pokemon had limits especially when it comes to their newest moves.

The copies that Balto was creating were beginning to become see through and fade out of existence after a few seconds. Steven halted the training battle as Balto's latest copy disappeared almost immediately upon appearing, "I think that's enough for Balto."

"Yeah," Vali agreed as Balto flopped onto the ground with a whine, "Got a headache?" She grabbed one of her persim berries earning a groan from Balto, "I know you don't really like these, but it'll help with your headache,"

"A persim berry to help with headaches?" Steven asked as Balto began eating the hard berry.

"Professor Oak's Alakazam told me about it," Vali took out an oran berry which Balto liked a lot better mostly because it wasn't a hard berry, "While they may curse Confusion, they also help relieve headaches in pokemon. It was something Professor Oak learned when observing some Psyduck in the wild. They tend to congregate in large groups in areas with persim bushes. They also do the same with Lum berries come to think of it," She fed the oran berry to Balto and scratched behind his ears, "They don't keep the big blasts of psychic-type energy from happening, but they do help ease the pain their headaches cause,"

"You learn something knew every day," Steven commented with a chuckle, "I'm definitely going to have to remember that,"

Metagross followed after Steven slowly. The shiny pokemon was still a bit leery about Vali despite the assurances that she was good friends with their master and the fact they'd met before on the way to Viridian City. Even the mental link between Steven and the steel-type master-in-training's pokemon, the shiny wasn't sure about her. While a bit off putting, she understood since it would take time for the pokemon to trust her. Vali mentally sighed before asking, "By the way Steven, what do you want to do once we're done in Fuchsia? I know that I want to be back in Pallet by Christmas, but what do you want to do?"

Steven blinked at her question before saying, "If you guys will have me, I think that I'll stay with you guys. My father is never home for Christmas and doesn't really expect me to be back."

"I'll need to ask Delia, but I think that she'll probably agree," Vali replied as a plan formed in her mind, "She likes having a full house from what I can tell though there is a chance we'll end up staying with the Oak's since the power can be pretty fickle in Pallet Town during winter especially when it's cold. There is also more room too," She noticed Steven's confused look, "Since the town is pretty small and mostly made of berry farmers outside of Professor Oak's aids, they don't have a big power plant. The power plant is pretty old too since it was built back when the Professor first settled down in Pallet town and no ones really gotten around to renovating it,"

"So sometimes the power cuts out randomly?" Steven asked earning a nod.

"Professor Oak's been meaning to have it renovated, but tends to forget since he's so busy," Vali saw the frown on Steven's face prompting her to say, "Professor Oak is pretty much in charge of Pallet Town since it only really became a town when the professor set up shop. No one really minds since most people have a few electric-types running around to power the houses when it happens," Vali bent down to scratch behind Balto's ears when he finished off both berries, "I mean it can be dangerous sometimes, but Pallet Town still manages to get through the winter,"

"I thought Pallet Town was small, but didn't know it was so new," Steven commented earning a small laugh.

"Most of the residents of Pallet Town would argue that it isn't new since it's technically been around since the first group of Kantoians got access to the ocean from the bay area," Vali grinned at Steven's raised eyebrow, "Delia, Professor Oak, and the other adults from Pallet Town are very proud of how well it's endured through the years despite it's small size," She went back to the plan she was slowly figuring out, "Anyway, I'm trying to figure out how we're going to get to Pallet Town. How good is Claydol at teleporting with multiple beings across a long distance?"

"Not very good since they don't have much experience with it, we could reach Pallet Town within a week of teleporting both to give Claydol some rest and give ourselves some time to recover from being teleported if we left from Fuchsia," Steven said as she took out her pokedex and began trying things down, "While Claydol are good at teleporting themselves, it isn't so easily done with others,"

"With that in mind, we would probably have a month to relax in Pallet town give or take a few days," Vali commented earning a slight nod from Steven, "Which would mean we'd be able to train a bit more extensively while also avoiding some of the worst weather. Of course, I could see if Professor Oak would be willing to lend Alakazam's teleporting services which would mean we'd be there quicker..."

"We could do that," Steven said when she trailed off.

An impish smile spread across her lips, "I have a fun idea."

Steven looked at her curiously as Vali began working out the idea.

* * *

Professor Oak nodded as Vali finished explaining her plans for the gym battle and why she needed Celina to be on her inactive team, "I can do that. I take it she's agreed to it?"

"Of course, I wouldn't have voiced it otherwise," Celina had actually be happy to not battle.

With the days growing colder, Celina had become somewhat sluggish and more than a little nippy when someone bothered her. It was actually a common trait observed in the Pidgey-line. Despite their bigger bodies and somewhat thick feathers, the Pidgey-line were a little more vulnerable to the cold than most flying-types and it took them quite awhile to build up the resistance needed to be able to fly during winter. Because of this, they migrated more often than most flying-types and often disappeared off into warmer areas of the regions they lived in to get away from the worst of the cold. It took years for a Pidgeot, even a trained one, to build up the endurance needed to be able to withstand the colder areas of the atmosphere. Of course, the Spearow-line were the exact opposite as they've evolved to withstand the colder areas of the regions most likely out of spite and the need to be better than the Pidgey-line.

It was also around this time of year that Celina would normally be bulking up as much as possible since mating season would kick in right when the Spring Thaw began. She would also be searching for a territory to call her own which would be visited by males during mating season in hopes of becoming her mate. Thanks to how well Vali had taken care of her friend, the Pidgeot would likely have quite a few males attempting to win her favor come mating season if she was old enough for it which would be a question she'd have to ask Professor Oak when she actually went home for Christmas.

Professor Oak nodded with a smile as he began typing on a nearby computer, "It'll take an hour for the process to be completed. Would you like to send her to the lab before you leave Fuchsia?"

"Actually, Professor..." Vali began explaining her plan and Professor Oak began laughing once she finished.

When the laughter died down, Professor Oak said, "You truly are a devious person, Vali. I'll definitely send Alakazam to pick you and Steven up once you're done in Fuchsia."

"Thank you, Professor. Make sure you don't breath a word about it to anyone since it does need to be a surprise," Vali winked at him earning a chuckle.

"Of course," Professor Oak shook his head, "Now, the stones you found,"

Vali sat up full, "Was I right?"

Professor Oak nodded as he shuffled around some papers, "Yes, but Sirius has mentioned that it is more difficult for the magic to flow in ways that he's used to."

"So it's likely we'll have to recreate the spells we know," Vali mused earning a nod from the Professor, "That's definitely something we can do though it will probably be a bit more difficult on me if it draws on my inner fire, we'll need to test it at some point during my time home along with whatever tests you plan on doing with my inner fire,"

"I'll try to limit them in some way so you can enjoy your time home," Professor Oak grinned slightly, "I have news that Gary is definitely going to enjoy though I've been asked to keep quiet about it,"

"Daisy's finally coming home?" Vali asked as she reached up to scratch behind Pikachu's ears.

"Yes and she'll definitely be apologizing to Gary when she sees him," Professor Oak looked very pleased, "I'm very thankful that Ash brought this to your attention and you brought it to mine,"

"I'm always glad to help, Professor," Vali replied as Pikachu nuzzled into her cheek, "After all, I do owe you a lot for taking Sirius and I in among other things,"

Professor Oak shook his head though didn't say anything since they'd had this conversation before and he'd had it with Sirius as well. Professor Oak changed the subject, "I'm surprised Balto isn't with you."

"He's been practicing Double Team for a while, so I'm having Nurse Joy look him over," Vali replied as Pikachu dropped into her lap, "He's really getting strong, Professor. I'm actually hoping that when we come home that you might be able to check him over and see how close he is to reaching the limit of what he can do as a Growlithe,"

"I don't see why not. Do you want me to do the same with Pikachu?" Professor Oak asked making Pikachu jolt and look at the Professor in shock.

Vali nodded as she smiled down at Pikachu, "Yes, I'm actually hoping to evolve him soon especially if he does well during the gym battle."

Pikachu looked at her in shock before grinning and letting out a happy cry. Vali giggled as she hugged the excited mouse pokemon and Professor Oak chuckled at the sight. Professor Oak said, "I see that he approves of it. I'll definitely check both of them over. I do hope you won't mind Arcanine battling Balto before you evolve him. He'd want to see how powerful one of his children have become."

"I think Balto would enjoy it especially if we gave them their heads for the battle," Vali knew that it would give her a good idea of just how good Balto was as a Growlithe compared to how he would be as an Arcanine.

"I'll speak to Arcanine later. Do you want to see how your pokemon do against mine, Vali?" Professor Oak offered earning a wide eyed look, "While my pokemon might not be quite in their prime anymore, they've still got it,"

"I'd love to Professor," Vali was surprised by how calm she sounded.

Excitement filled her as Vali barely held herself back from squealing. Battling a champions team, a former champion with one of the shortest terms in current existence or not, was a dream come true especially when you considered the fact their trainer is Professor Oak. The man not only managed to train a Charizard, but a Dragonite as well on top of other pokemon. He was one of the first people outside of the Blackthorn dragon tamer clan to raise a Dratini into a powerful Dragonite that's still loyal to him even now that he isn't actively battling. Even if they're considered one of the friendliest dragon-types in existence, Dragonite are some of the most powerful creatures on the planet and deserved respect.

Professor Oak snickered at the likely awestruck expression on her face, "I think Gary and Ash would enjoy watching those battles, don't you?"

Vali coughed as she forced herself to calm down, "I do. They'd probably enjoy it."

"Though you might want to be careful bringing Smaug around," Professor Oak warned her.

Vali nodded in understanding, "I will though it might prove to be a good idea to have your Charizard battle mine. Might motivate Smaug a bit more and knock down some of his arrogance."

Smaug was a Charizard which could be pretty arrogant if not knocked down a few pegs especially if they were males. Professor Oak nodded as he gained a concentrated look on his face, "I'll fix up a battlefield for them to use. How is the Vulpix egg?"

"Healthy. I have been tempted to try meditating with it in my lap, but I don't want to accidentally harm the unborn pokemon," Vali would hate herself if she did that.

"I can understand especially since we don't know exactly what your inner flame can do," Professor Oak sighed deeply, "I really wish we could find those answers,"

"They lay with whoever is giving me those visions and dreams," Vali's good mood disappeared at the reminder of her visions.

Professor Oak offered her an apologetic smile, "We'll figure things out, Vali. I promise."

Vali nodded, "If you'll excuse me, I need to go talk to Delia."

"Of course," Professor Oak replied, "I will hopefully see you soon,"

The call cut and Vali ran a hand through her hair feeling a bit of irritation. Pikachu nuzzled into her with a worried expression. She offered the mouse pokemon a tired smile, "I'll be fine, Pikachu. I'm just a bit frustrated right now with the whole visions and stuff."

Vali's dreams had been filled with the shattered pieces of the vision that she'd seen that first night after the safari zone alongside the dreams she'd had before. While they didn't completely dominate her dreams, they often caused her to wake up in the middle of the night. Part of the reason she was so eager to return home was because of Regulus and the other dark-type pokemon at the ranch, they would hopefully give her a reprieve from the visions. She rubbed underneath Pikachu's electrical sacks earning a coo of delight from the mouse pokemon as the worried expression vanished. Pushing her troubled thoughts away, she dialed her home number and smiled at Delia when the woman answered, "Vali! This is a surprise, I didn't think you'd be calling for another few days since you do have training to do."

"We're taking a small break while my pokemon learning Double Team get checked over by Nurse Joy," Vali explained earning a look of understanding, "Anyway, I talked with Steven about returning home for Christmas and some much needed R&R since we've been pretty much going non-stop since leaving Pallet Town. Steven's dad doesn't really expect him back for Christmas and isn't really home for it anyway. We were kind of hoping you wouldn't mind him coming to stay with us for the month off we're taking,"

Delia beamed at her, "I don't mind at all though did you tell him about the chances of us staying with the Oak's?"

"Of course, I didn't want to throw him off the deep end," Vali felt the tension she'd been feeling ease up, "Is Ash there?"

Delia shook her head, "No, He's with Sirius and Gary at the corral. Why?"

Vali offered the woman an impish grin, "Well, you see..."

Delia giggled with a grin, "Oh that sounds wonderful, I can't wait to see their faces."

* * *

Pikachu hit Pele with his tail gaining a pale grey sheen causing the Numel to go skidding back on her hooves with a surprised expression on her face. He lept back as she released some Ember at him and looked at Vali as she called for the practice match to end. She looked into her pokedex before grinning at him, "Looks like you managed to learn Slam, Pikachu. Let's practice it a bit more then work on Wild Charge, okay?"

Pikachu nodded and turned to Pele with a grin on his face. The faster he mastered the attacks Vali wanted him to learn, the better his showing during the next gym battle would be. He had to show his trainer just how worthy he was of becoming a Raichu.

* * *

Vali looked over the tutorials that she'd found for Wild Charge one more time before saying, "Alright, so the basis of it is similar to slam where you use your innate non-elemental energy to slam your tail into whoever you're battling at high speeds and heavy force. Instead of focusing your non-elemental energy into the attack, you need to use your innate electrical energy," She bent down to show Pikachu a video of a Raichu racing forward covered in a cloak of electricity, "What I'm going to have you do, is use Quick Attack while also charging up your electricity. This should give you a base for using Wild Charge, okay?" Pikachu nodded as he watched the video carefully, "For now, I just want you to get used to having your electricity charged up while you're going at fast speeds. Everything else can wait until you get it down."

Pikachu watched the video two more times before he went to start training himself too use Wilde Charge. Vali watched him start running around slowly with his cheeks occasionally sparking before slowly beginning to increase his speed. When his cheeks stopped sparking, he slowed down and waited a few moments before restarting. She looked down when she felt Eevee lean against her legs and showed him the videos Pikachu was watching, "He's learning Wild Charge. It's one of the moves he has to learn before evolving otherwise he'd never have the ability to learn it," Eevee looked at her with a bit of confusion in his eyes, "During evolution, Pikachu's body gains mass and muscle which reduces their speed in exchange for an increased electrical storage, defense, and attack. If they learn speed attacks such as Agility, they'll be able to use them due to the fact their body already knows how and will compensate for the speed via extra energy to the muscles needed for it," Eevee nodded slowly and looked at Pikachu with a small frown, "Pikachu wants to evolve and I'll give him that chance even if a Raichu isn't exactly suited for my battling style. A Charizard of all things isn't exactly suited for it either, but I'm not going to prevent any of my pokemon from evolving if they want to."

Eevee looked up at her with a question burning in his eyes. She bent down to get mostly eye-level as she said, "Eevee, if you choose to stay with me, I'd love you no matter what evolution you chose or even if you choose to stay like this. Evolution is a choice after all though most would probably disagree."

Pikachu let out a surprised yelp and Vali looked at him to see the mouse pokemon rolling around with Pippin. Taking a quick picture with her camera, she rushed over to seperate them. Clearly, Pippin had thought this was a game rather than training and wanted to play too.

* * *

The date of Vali's gym battle with Koga drew ever closer with her pokemon working their asses off to get ready for it. Vali had decided on Pikachu, Balto, Arwen, and Idril to be her battlers this time around. It was high time for Idril to have her first gym battle. If it weren't for the fact Terra still needed a lot of work, she would have been on the roster alongside Idril. Smaug was still getting used to his bigger body and wouldn't do well in an enclosed space for his first gym battle as a Charizard. Celina wasn't suited for the battle and everyone else needed a lot more training before she deemed them anywhere near ready for an actual battle let alone a gym battle. Of course, Empress looked about ready to bash her skull in when she'd made that announcement. Over-confident dragons for the win and all that, she really needed to see if Lance had a pokegear if only so she could pick his brain about how to deal with her Bagon.

Pikachu, Balto, Arwen, and Idril were put through their paces with the latter two getting the most attention of the four. Idril especially getting her attention as the shiny Sandshrew began to shed her timidness. With her added attention, Idril managed to learn Rollout and Poison Sting with the former leading to the Sandshrew learning Rapid Spin. It wasn't long until she noticed parts of Idril's back scales beginning to shift slightly and small dark red spots beginning to form in those areas. With that in mind, she took Idril to Nurse Joy. Nurse Joy announced that Idril was in the beginning stages of evolution and depending on what Vali did from now on, the shiny Sandshrew would likely be evolving in a month. The pink haired nurse advised the fire-type master-in-training to keep Idril inside as much as possible after the gym battle because the snow that would soon begin falling would harm the ground-type. With that in mind, she passed along the warning to Steven.

Arwen wasn't showing any sign of evolution though that wasn't too surprising since the Ponyta-line grew a bit more slowly compared to most fire-types. It was mostly due to their genetics and how their bodies had evolved over time. Ponyta took longer to evolve due to their bodies being built to withstand the wear and tear of keeping up with their herds. Even when a Ponyta worked with a trainer, it took them upwards of a year to evolve if caught wild. If bred, it took even longer especially when the Ponyta was newly hatched. Despite what most trainers would believe, Vali was actually happy that it would take Arwen longer to evolve.

Vali wasn't ready to be forced to have multiple pokemon sleep in their pokeballs because there wasn't enough room in her pokemon center room. It was difficult at the current moment to figure out where Smaug and Celina were supposed to sleep on top of where her newer pokemon slept. Pippin had a habit of sleeping on her chest with Pele somehow managing to end up on halfway on top of her left leg from where she usually slept next to the wall. Empress tended to migrate in her sleep to lay on her right leg despite falling asleep beside Smaug. Despite the fact she ended up with numb body parts by morning, she loved not having to use a blanket due to her pokemon providing more than enough warmth to not need one.

Relatively speaking, Vali sometimes woke up sweating heavily mostly due to the fact Pele's body radiated quite a bit of heat. Not as hot as the magma inside the Numel's body, everyone probably would've been burned at some point if that had happened. Pele's body naturally sealed in a majority of the heat save for when something actually managed to piss off the Numel which hadn't happened since she ended up capturing herself. She was both looking forward to and dreading the day it happened. Numel may be some of the more even tempered pokemon, but when they lost their temper, it was scary especially since they tended to evolve when that happened. Before that happened, she was going to ensure that Pele loved and cared for every member of their family if only to prevent any accidents from happening once the evolution occurred.

* * *

Vali looked over each of her pokemon who would be participating in the battle and smiled at their well-rested forms the morning before their battle with Koga, "Are you guys ready for this?" Excited nods and slightly nervous trills were given, "I know we'll be able to win this. Idril," Idril looked at her, "Depending on what pokemon Koga sends out, I'll be having you battle first. I know that you'll be able to win it, Sweetheart," She bent down to Idril's level and rubbed the Sandshrew's slightly rough skin, "I know it's a bit daunting especially given how important these battles are. I'm always a bit nervous when it comes to these battles," Idril looked at her in shock, "I hide it pretty well. I know Balto and the others are nervous too. Aren't you?" Balto barked as Pikachu nodded and Arwen whinnied, "See, we all nervous, but we're not going to let it get to us. Do your best, Sweetheart. Our family is standing behind you every step of the way."

Idril nodded with a determined expression on her face. Vali smiled softly and returned everyone before joining Steven at the doors of the pokemon center. Steven looked at her curiously, "Everyone alright?"

"Yeah," Vali bent down to Eevee's level and he jumped onto her shoulder, "Idril needed that pep-talk," They left the pokemon center, "I'm going to be sending her out first depending on who Koga sends out,"

"Do you think she'll be able to handle it?" Steven asked with a slightly worried expression on his face.

Vali nodded with a light smile, "I know she can. She's been training so hard along with everyone else. She deserves the chance to show off her strength."

They soon reached the gym and headed inside. The gym trainer looked up from her computer, "Valkyrie Potter?"

"Yes, Ma'am," Vali said before gesturing to Steven, "Steven's watching my battle today,"

"Traveling partners?" The Gym Trainer asked as she typed something into the computer.

"Yes," Vali walked over to the desk.

"If you'll follow me, we'll head to the battlefield. Gym Leader Koga will be there," The Gym Trainer stood up and led them through the ninja school.

Steven spoke as they passed by an open door which showed some students learning how to throw shuriken, "I wasn't aware that weapons are legal in Kanto."

"Only those who go to our school and pass the required tests are allowed them," The Gym Trainer glanced back at Steven, "If a student leaves, any weapons they have are taken from them and their names are blacklisted from our suppliers. If the student returns, they have to go through the tests once more,"

"You need a special license for them," Vali added earning a raised eyebrow from Steven, "Sirius told me since he needed to get one and learn the rules about them to become a pokemon Ranger. They're only allowed to be used in extreme circumstances though and there's a lot of red tape involved,"

"Here we are," The Gym Trainer said when they reached a pair of shoji doors with the Fuchsia city symbol and the League symbol painted on the them.

The doors slid open and they found the battlefield waiting for them. Vali looked over Koga who was one of the few gym leaders that didn't often appear in public outside of certain league events. He was assessing her the moment she entered and didn't seem to dismiss her as a threat immediately showed that the man understood one of the many Slytherin phrases she'd discovered while at Hogwarts: Don't assume someone is weak or useless by appearance alone. Internally smiling a bit, she called out, "Gym Leader Koga?" The man dressed like a ninja inclined his head, "I'm Valkyrie Potter. I will be your challenger."

"Then stand in the trainers box, your companion may sit in the stands," Koga replied with a somewhat blank expression.

Vali moved to the trainers box as asked while Steven headed to the stands. A referee appeared as Koga moved to his own position, "This is a four on four battle between Gym Leader Koga of Fuchsia city and Challenger Valkyrie Potter of Pallet Town. Only the challenger may make any substitutions. Trainers, please release your first pokemon!"

Koga released a Ariados and Vali replied with Idril causing the gym leader's eyes to widen, "A shiny Sandshrew? So you are the trainer that Lt. Surge spoke of."

Vali looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "Surge spoke about me?"

"Indeed," Koga's lips twitched into a faint smirk, "He spoke highly of your battling skills despite the fact you do not rely on brute strength as he does,"

Vali shrugged as the referee called out, "Begin!"

"Idril, Hide and seek," Vali ordered immediately and Idril disappeared into the ground.

"Ariados, Sticky Web," Koga ordered in reply.

Ariados began layering the battlefield with sticky silk that Vali would need to get rid of via fire-type attacks the moment she was able to. She focused on Ariados noting that it was fairly small and it's movement not quite as smooth as they should be which meant the spider had evolved not too long ago. She knew that Koga was probably using this as a test to gauge her strength. She spotted the small holes forming in the ground making her mentally smile. Out of all her pokemon, Idril fit in the best when it came to her strategy. Due to their body type and instincts, the Sandshrew-line would never be able to tank hits no matter how hard you tried simply because they weren't built for it. Instead of becoming tanks, they were perfect to become the assassin of the team.

Ariados let out a startled shriek of surprise when glowing purple needles struck the bottom of it's abdomen where the thick exoskeleton was thinner due to the spinnerets being there. It lept up and spun around to strike the pokemon that had attacked it only to find nothing. Even though poison-types couldn't be poisoned, poison-type attacks still did damage. Idril popped up to hit it with Mud-Slap before disappearing back into the ground earning a shriek of surprised pain. Vali reached up to scratch behind Eevee's ear as she whispered to him, "Idril's way of using hide and seek is diffrent from the others, don't you think?" Eevee nodded slowly, "She's a lot more effective at it because she can do a lot inside the ground. It's basically water to her and like any aquatic pokemon, she can sense the vibrations in the ground allowing her to find her opponents."

Koga spoke before she could continue her explanation, "So you're taking the natural skills of your pokemon and utilizing them rather than attempt to transform it into a tank."

"Sandshrew aren't meant to tank hits same with Pikachu and quite a few other pokemon," Vali replied as Idril kept peppering Ariados with attacks as the spider began to fling poison-type attacks back though none of them seemed to hit, "Ariados aren't meant to tank hints either,"

"True enough," Koga looked at the battlefield with a slight chuckle, "You've already noticed that my Ariados is fairly young, did you not?"

Vali eyed him as she nodded, "I noticed it's movements weren't as smooth as they should be and it is small for its species even for a female."

"She evolved a week ago," Koga confirmed her thoughts.

"You're attempting to gauge my skills and react accordingly," Vali watched Idril pop up and take a chance with using Shadow Claw causing a high pitched screech of pain to leave Ariados as a deep cut appeared on the spider's exoskeleton.

Vali felt a bit of bile rise up in her throat at the sight of Ariados' blood leaking out of the cut. It was a thick slimy greenish purple substance that made an unpleasant plopping sound when it hit the ground. She felt Eevee stiffen a bit and reached up to calm him down. Koga spoke as Idril disappeared back into the ground, "You are not used to fighting bug-types are you?"

"No, not on this level at least," Vali hadn't faced many bug-type trainers since not long before they left Celadon, "Will she be okay?"

"She will be fine," Koga replied making Eevee relax a bit, "Bug-type pokemon are rather resilient. Unless their exoskeleton is completely crushed or destroyed, they will always manage to survive for the most part," Idril used Shadow Claw once more and Ariados was showing signs of weakness as another deep cut appeared on the spider's exoskeleton, "Ariados, Bug Bite,"

Ariados managed to catch Idril before she could go back to ground and bit down harshly. Idril squealed in pain and retaliated with Scratch. Ariados held on tight as Idril used Scratch over and over again pumping poison into her Sandshrew. Ariados finally let go when Idril scored a decent hit with Shadow Claw. Idril disappeared back into the ground and resumed her old tactics until the spider passed out. Idril pulled herself from the ground as Koga returned his knocked out Ariados. Vali bent down as Idril stumbled towards her looking ill and shaky as a purple aura ran over her body. Vali took out Idril's pokeball as she reached down to gently scratch under Idril's chin, "You did a very good job, Idril. I'm going to return you now."

Idril nodded with a pleased expression and Vali returned her while mentally promising the shiny pokemon a good pampering session once Nurse Joy got done with her. Standing up fully, Vali watched as Koga released a Koffing which prompted Vali to release Arwen. Koga eyed Arwen as the Ponyta danced a bit making sounds of annoyance at the webbing which caught on her hooves and legs, "So now I get to see your fire-types."

"Mhmm," Vali spoke to Arwen, "Arwen, get rid of the webbing as much as possible,"

Arwen began releasing Embers which caused the webbing to burn away quickly showing that the sticky fluid that coated the silky strands was highly flammable. Vali made a mental note to remember that for when she battled any other web-spinning pokemon. Koga ordered his Koffing, "Koffing, use Smog."

"Arwen, Flame Wheel," Vali needed to see if Ponyta were able to learn Flamethrower since that would be a useful move right about now.

Hopefully, Koga wouldn't use that thrice damned Explosion or Self-Destruct because that would suck. Arwen took off into the poisonous smoke with flames coating her body which would hopefully keep the poisonous air from getting to her. Koffing had floated a bit close to the ground while releasing the smoke and Arwen managed to hit it. Fortunately, it caused Koffing's flammable gases to ignite and explode thus knocking the poison-type out. Unfortunately, Arwen was too close and ended up taking almost the full brunt of the attack.

Arwen managed to get to her feet while Koga returned his knocked out Koffing, "Arwen, do you want to take a break?"

Arwen looked at Vali then at the Weezing Koga released and nodded with a tired whinny. Vali returned her and sent out Balto. Balto immediately disappeared into the ground upon seeing Weezing causing Koga to ask, "Is he going to be hiding the whole match?"

"No," Vali had planned this out with Balto on the off chance he'd end up against one of Poison Gas pokemon, "Balto, we only need to knock out Weezing and another pokemon to win. Idril and Arwen won their battles though aren't in the best shape,"

Koga called out, "Poison Gas, Weezing."

"Light it up, Balto," Vali thanked Arceus that most poison-type moves were flammable especially the ones involving gas.

Balto began releasing Embers which looked like it might turn into Flamethrower fairly soon if they spent a bit more time on it. The gas immediately ignited and due to the fact Weezing was still releasing it, caused the flames to enter the floating poison-types body thus causing it to explode. Thankfully, Balto was under ground and far enough out of the blast radius to avoid getting more than a few scratches. He popped up carefully and shook the dust off his fur with a bark. Weezing was surprisingly still conscious, but a quick Iron Tail took it out pretty quickly after that. Koga spoke with a pleased gleam in his eyes, "It has been awhile since one of my opponents has managed to defeat my pokemon without any real loses in awhile."

"We're a pretty good team," Vali replied as Koga released his last pokemon which wasn't one she recognized right away, "What is that?"

"He is a Whirlipede," Koga answered making Vali's eyes widen in surprise before she inwardly cursed as it began releasing purple spikes.

"Unova," Vali knew that it had to be a bug/poison-type like Ariados if only because of it's outward appearance, "A bug/poison-type. Balto," He glanced at her while eyeing the curled up pokemon with distrust, "Don't get caught by it or try to touch it. We have no idea what abilities it might have,"

Balto nodded with a bark and lowered his body closer to the ground though made sure to avoid getting near the Toxic Spikes on the ground. Koga actually chuckled as he caught her words, "You have good instincts. He is one of my newer pokemon that I received via the gym pokemon exchange."

Vali was definitely going to be branching out with her pokemon knowledge to prevent getting flat-footed after this. It would be a good idea for when the League Conference came around since there were always a few pokemon trainers bouncing around the various Regions. She should see if Professor Oak might be able to update her pokedex's database if only to safe time later on. Balto started off the battle with Ember and began moving around the battlefield in a slow walk being careful to avoid the array of Toxic Spikes littering the ground around Whirlipede. Based on the small amount, it was quite clear that Whirlipede hadn't practiced the move long enough to cover an entire battlefield which was lucky for them. Whirlipede released some Poison Stings in retaliation which Balto quickly dodged as he continued releasing Embers. She spoke as Whirlipede released a spray of poisonous liquid that Balto quickly moved away from, "Balto," Balto looked up at her, "Divide and Steel."

Balto used Double Team and began racing around causing Whirlipede to let out a confused shriek as it tried to find the real one. The Balto's darted forward and slammed into Whirlipede with Iron Tail sending it flying. Koga spoke as Balto continued slamming into Whirlipede with Iron Tail and spitting Ember at it while pulling off some impressive acrobatics to avoid the Toxic Spikes littering the ground, "You're hoping that the steel-type energy of the Iron Tail will keep any poisonous conditions from affecting your Growlithe which actually deals with my Whirlipede's Poison Point ability quite nicely."

"So that's the ability he has," Vali murmured as Balto broke away from Whirlipede when it released a loud Screech after using Protect, "Balto, take a break. I think I've got a plan,"

Balto nodded and let her return him knowing that she wanted to give Pikachu a chance. Pikachu appeared on the field and looked around only to pause at the sight of Whirlipede. Koga looked a bit confused at her switch over, "You're using a Pikachu rather than your Growlithe?"

Vali didn't reply to him, "Pikachu, that is a Whirlipede from Unova which is a poison/bug type. It has the Poison Point ability, so try not to touch it without Iron Tail," Pikachu nodded as his cheeks spark, "He also has Toxic Spikes littering the ground. Avoid them as much as possible otherwise you'll get poisoned," Pikachu nodded again while taking in the battlefield with a frown, "Start off with Electric Terrain and Thunder Wave."

Koga blinked as the battlefield became charged up with electrical energy, "I wasn't aware that Pikachu born outside of Alola had the ability to use Electric Terrain."

"Me either, but I'm not questioning my luck," Vali replied as Pikachu used Thunder Wave which promptly slammed into Whirlipede stopping it from releasing anymore of that poisonous liquid from earlier, "Pikachu, Divide and Shocker,"

Pikachu began using Double Team to a greater extent than Balto or any of her other family members were currently capable of due to how long he's been able to practice the move. Koga's eyes widened at the sheer number of copies Pikachu created before seemingly shaking off his surprise as he shouted, "Whirlipede, use Protect and wide spray Poison Sting."

Vali eyed the battlefield carefully as Whirlipede's body was shielded from the Thunder Shocks Pikachu was releasing before it began spitting Poison Sting in a wide ark. To the surprise of everyone observing the battle, the battlefield became empty of all inhabitants save for Whirlipede earning a confused clicking sound from the bug/poison-type as it's green shield disappeared. Pikachu appeared behind Whirlipede and hit it with a high powered Thunder Punch that sent the curled up pokemon skidding away. Pikachu followed up his punch with a Thunder Bolt that caused Whirlipede to shriek in pain as it paused in it's efforts to get up. Pikachu created more copies of himself and disappeared into the sea of Pikachu as Whirlipede picked itself up and whirled around with shriek as it began spraying Poison Sting again. Showing that it had learned something, Whirlipede didn't drop the Protect it covered itself in this time when the sea of Pikachu's disappeared.

Too bad for Whirlipede, Pikachu had finally learned Feint yesterday. Whirlipede's Protect shattered like glass allowing Pikachu to slam an Iron Tail into it's back and send it skidding back. Pikachu released another Thunder Bolt before creating more copies of himself and disappearing. Whirlipede righted itself with a pissed off sounding shriek as it once more used Poison Sting to get rid of the copies. Instead of using Protect, it disappeared from sight leaving Pikachu blinking in shock when his opponent wasn't standing nearby when he came back above ground. Vali hurriedly called out, "He's using Agility!"

Pikachu was slammed into by Whirlipede and sent flying with a cry of pain. He managed to right himself before he landed though the purple aura that enveloped his body moments later showed that he had been poisoned. Mentally cursing at the fact they now had a time-limit, Vali was pleased to note that the use of Agility had cost the bug. It was panting heavily and shaking slightly as electrical discharge slid across its body. Pikachu used Electrical Terrain again as Koga said, "It would seem that you're now on a time-limit."

"We'll see about that," Vali noted the determined look on Pikachu's face, "Pikachu, use that move!"

Pikachu nodded with a growl as Koga gained a frown, "What are you planning?"

"You'll see," Vali watched as an electrical aura engulfed Pikachu's body.

Thunder was going to exhaust Pikachu, but with the additional power of Electrical Terrain, it wouldn't knock him unconscious. Pikachu released the pent up electricity into the sky which came down upon Whirlipede too quickly for the curled-up pokemon to react. When the electricity faded, Pikachu was panting heavily and clearly on his last legs while Whirlipede was unconscious. The referee called out, "Whirlipede is unconscious. Winner Challenger Valkyrie Potter of Pallet Town and Pikachu!"

Vali quickly made her way over to Pikachu and bent down to pick him up, "You did very good, Pikachu," Pikachu licked her cheek, "I'm going to get everyone to Nurse Joy as soon as possible. Get some rest, Pikachu."

Vali returned Pikachu and turned to Koga as the gym leader approached her, "That was a very interesting battle, I have much work ahead of me."

"It was a pleasure to battle you," Vali said as Koga held out the badge to and she took it from him.

"Once the League Conference is over, it would be a pleasure if you'd come back and train here with us for a little while," Koga told her as Steven joined them from the stands, "It is not often those in their first year of training choose a battling style other than brute force even when they reach my gym. It would be a pleasure to see how far you can go with our methods,"

"I'll consider it," Vali promised him feeling a bit shocked at the offer.

Koga nodded and turned to Steven, "I assume you're my next challenger?"

"My battle is scheduled for tomorrow," Steven replied earning a nod.

"I look forward to it, Mr. Stone. It isn't often that I have a chance to battle against a Steel-type user," Koga smirked a bit before disappearing.

They left the gym rather quickly and headed straight to the pokemon center. Steven let out a soft laugh earning a confused look from Vali, "That's two gym leaders that have offered to teach you."

"I know," Vali couldn't stop the grin that spread across her face anymore than she could quell the excitement burning through her, "I'm not sure I'll take him up on his offer though,"

"It'll be an option that you can fallback on if Blaine doesn't decide to take you under his wing," Steven commented earning a nod, "That makes 5 gym badges for you, you'll only need to beat Sabrina, Blaine, and Giovanni in order to qualify for the Conference,"

"Is it odd that I'm having a bit of trouble believing it?" Vali asked as she looked at the shiny new badge she was holding, "I mean, we just won it, but..."

"But the knowledge that you managed it within a few months as opposed to the full year it sometimes takes people to gather their badges makes you wonder if it's a dream," Steven finished for her and patted the shoulder the didn't contain Eevee, "You deserve it, Vali. With all the hard work you're putting in with your pokemon, you definitely deserve the acknowledgement of that skill,"

Vali smiled at him, "You helped us along as well, Steven. While we would've reached this point eventually, we couldn't have gotten here without your help too, so thank you."

Steven let out a light laugh and shook his head, "It's no problem. We should probably hurry to the pokemon center."

* * *

Ash looked at her array of badges in awe alongside Gary through the video phone, "That's so cool, Vali! Now you just need three more, right?"

"Yup," Vali put down her badges on the desk beneath the monitor, "I can't wait to get to Cinnabar Island and face Blaine,"

"He's the fire-type gym leader, right?" Ash asked earning a nod, "How are you going to battle against him? You don't have a water-type,"

"I don't need a water-type, Ash," Vali saw the boys confused expressions, "You've been taught that type advantages will always win, right?" The two boys nodded, "That isn't always true in real-life, it will always come down to the pokemon themselves, their experience, their individual power levels, skills, and how they battle. Gym Leaders for example will always have plans for dealing with type advantages and tend to win if someone just focuses on their type advantage," Vali could tell that both of them were still lost though Gary seemed to be beginning to understand, "Okay take Balto battling against Steven's Metagross. Who would win?"

"Balto," Ash answered automatically.

"Metagross," Gary retorted earning a confused look from Ash.

Vali nodded at Gary, "That's correct, Gary."

Ash looked at her in confusion, "Huh?"

Vali thought about how to put this in a way that Ash could understand, "While Balto is powerful for a Growlithe, he's still a Growlithe that only really began training when he became my pokemon. Metagross is a fully evolved Pseudo legendary pokemon that Steven's been training since he was my age. Despite Metagross' Steel-typing, they are still an older pokemon that has been around for quite a while. Steven is going to become a Steel-type master which means he'll have to figure out ways to deal with his type's weaknesses."

"So despite his type-advantage, Balto would lose against Metagross because it's stronger and more experienced than him?" Ash had a concentrated look on his face.

Vali nodded feeling proud that Ash understood her, "Yes, but eventually, he'll end up winning against Metagross so long as he continues to train and develop his battling skills."

"So does this mean I don't have to learn theory?" Ash asked with a slight grin.

Vali felt just a little sad for bursting his bubble, "No, you need to learn theory, Ash. It's very important alongside practical skills if you're going to become a great trainer," Ash's face fell, "I understand why you don't like theory, Ash. I've always been better at practical skills rather than theory."

"Really?" Ash asked as Gary looked at her in surprise.

Vali nodded lightly, "Hands on learning is easier for me than book learning, Ash is a lot like me in that regard. Gary on the other hand finds book learning easier. Everyone learns differently even pokemon."

"So Ash isn't stupid for not getting our book lessons down while I'm not stupid for having trouble with the practical portions?" Gary summed up earning a glare from Ash for calling him stupid.

"Neither of you are stupid and anyone that calls you that is an idiot," Vali picked up Pippin when he pawed at her legs and set him in her lap, "It's actually a good thing you two learn differently," They looked at her in confusion, "Ash can help Gary understand the practical lessons,"

"While I help him understand the book lessons?" Gary asked more than answered.

"Yup," Vali nodded and saw comprehension dawning in their eyes, "And the stuff neither of you understand can be brought up to one of the adults after school, the lab has quite a few people able to help you out,"

Ash's eyes found Pippin, "What pokemon is that?"

"A Shinx," Vali answered with a light grin, "His name is Pippin or Pip for short. Pip," Pippin looked up at her curiously, "These two are my adoptive little brothers, Ash and Gary,"

Vali spent a bit more time talking to the two before getting off of the video phone. Steven looked up when she approached where he was sitting in the trainer's lounge area, "That took a little awhile, is everything okay?'

"Everything is fine, I was just talking with the boys," Vali sat down with Pippin in her lap, "They're really eager for when we get home,"

"Did you tell them when we were going to arrive?" Steven asked her with a raised eyebrow.

Vali shook her head, "Nope~I'm keeping that a secret. You're fine with the plan though, right?"

"Sure, it sounds like a lot of fun," Steven looked at her in amusement, "I didn't think you'd be the type of person to prank someone,"

"I'm a woman of many facets," Vali replied before looking down at Pippin who butted his head against her chest, "How's Blastoise?"

Wartortle had finally evolved during a practice battle with Smaug. Smaug was torn between being happy one of his usual sparring partners was now stronger and annoyed that the battle had ended before he could win. Steven sighed deeply, "According to Nurse Joy, he won't be able to battle for the next two weeks due to his shell being too weak. He apparently needed more iron and calcium in his diet than what I was giving him."

"Well it does happen, but at least he'll be fine in the end, right?" Vali asked earning a nod, "It isn't something you would've known since the Squirtle-line aren't something your familiar with at least in concerns of their evolution,"

"True," Steven still looked annoyed with himself, "I should've been doing more research,"

Vali patted his shoulder in sympathy, "At least now, you'll know to do so in the future. Beating yourself up about it won't help Blastoise," Steven's expression lightened a bit as a determined gleam entered his eye, "Besides, you need to focus on Lileep anyway. He's edging closer to his evolution and it won't be long until he does."

"I should have Nurse Joy do a deep check on him," Steven stood up, "Thank you, Vali,"

"No problem," Vali stood up as well after transferring Pippin to the ground, "I should go see her about everyone's conditions and maybe have her check on my egg,"

* * *

"Your egg should be hatching in about little more than a week and a half," Nurse Joy said as she read the information off of the scanner she was using on the egg, "It should beginning moving in the next two days. I would advise keeping a closer eye on it during this time,"

"Will do," Vali felt excitement fill her at the fact she'd have a baby pokemon to take care of soon, "So can you tell the gender now?"

"That I can," Nurse Joy looked at her with an amused look, "Would you like to know?"

"Yes, please!" Vali had trouble keeping herself from bouncing around.

Nurse Joy let out a warm laugh and moved the scanner around a bit before saying, "You're going to be having a male Vulpix."

Vali grinned brightly at that news. Of course, she would've been happy with a female one, but a male was actually the better option. Males of the Vulpix-line were generally more even tempered and more forgiving especially towards newer trainers, they also didn't demand to be groomed every single day unless it was mating season though that wouldn't affect her little one until he was at least a year old and had become a Ninetales. She took the egg gently from Nurse Joy when the pink haired healer handed it over, "Thank you for this, Nurse Joy. Are there any tips you can give me at the moment?"

"Just keep it out of the cold as much as possible," Nurse Joy told her, "When the egg starts moving, you should let it keep it in a padded area where it can move about though not too big of an area. It should be about the same size as this crib," Nurse Joy pointed to the padded crib where a small Teddiursa was sleeping, "In the last few hours before the egg hatches, it will stop all movement save for a gentle rocking motion. When it begins to hatch, you should make sure there are hot towels and the like around you to clean up the baby pokemon and make sure you're the first thing it sees to ensure it imprints on you. Make sure you give it moo-moo milk laced with fire-type formula,"

"How long should I wait before catching it?" Vali set the egg into her egg-case and began writing down what Nurse Joy had told her so far.

"Wait until the day after, it'll make sure that the baby won't be harmed in the catching process," Nurse Joy looked at her note taking with approval, "Tell Professor Oak immediately after it hatches, it can't be sent to the lab for a period of four months to ensure you bond with it properly. It can begin training within a month of being born though nothing serious until after the four month marker. Talk to a Nurse Joy before you do battle with it, we don't want to accidentally hurt the poor pokemon,"

"Yes, Ma'am," Vali wrote that down before asking, "Is there anything specific I should do after it hatches?"

"Hold it as much as possible and make sure to introduce it to all your pokemon so it will associate them with pack," Nurse Joy warned earning a nod, "Other than that, you should be fine. I would advise getting some teething toys since it's teeth will grow in pretty quickly,"

Vali would see if Professor Oak had any extras laying around the lab, "Anything else?"

Nurse Joy cupped her chin lightly, "Keep it out of the snow for three days after its born, you should also avoid using water on it for about two weeks. Other than that, you should put a bit of ground up charcoal into it's food until it is about six months old which will be when it'll do that on its own."

"While I'm not planning on evolving it for a long time, when would be a good idea?" Vali asked earning an approving gaze.

"When it's a year old, it shouldn't be evolved before then even if it reaches the limit of what it can learn as a Vulpix," Nurse Joy advised, "Any other questions?"

Vali thought carefully before shaking her head, "No, Ma'am. Thank you for everything."

"It's no trouble," Nurse Joy smiled warmly, "It isn't often that young trainers around your age take the time to get their eggs checked and make sure they're prepared for when it hatches,"

Vali promised herself to talk to Professor Oak about ensuring the kids of Pallet Town at least understood what went into taking care of an egg among other things. If nothing else, she would ensure Ash and Gary understood it. Ash probably knew at least a small bit what with his Pidgey.

* * *

Steven's battle with Koga went by fairly quick and showed just how much trouble a poison-type had with steel-types. Koga had still given a good showing when he managed to take out Mawile and Lileep only to fall in the face of Metagross. The Scolipede Koga had, had managed to get the match to a stand-still for a little while before ultimately falling. It was an amazing match that caused quite a bit of damage to the battlefield that resulted in Koga having to use his outside battlefield until the League was able to make it safe again. Due to the fact winter was closing it's icy grip on Kanto, Koga would probably be postponing his gym battles after the new two weeks due to the conditions outside being too unsafe.

Vali made sure to take pictures of the battles and went through them once they left the gym, "That was amazing, Steven."

"It was a good battle. I hope to come back at some point and battle his true team," Steven grinned a bit, "It isn't often I get a good battle against a poison-type user,"

"I have to wonder if Koga will look into getting a Salandit or Salazzle," Vali noted the confusion on his face, "They're a fire/poison-type from Alola and are a female only evolution. I looked them up while I was researching fire-type pokemon and Professor Oak has a database about the pokemon of Alola due to his cousin living there. It's a pretty cool pokemon though finding a female Salandit is like searching for a needle in a haystack since they're a lot like Eevee where the species is pretty much male,"

Vali wasn't going to mention just how expensive it would be to import a female Salandit from Alola. They were even more expensive than Eevee especially when you went into all the red-tape owning one outside of Alola was. If you caught one in Alola, you didn't have to go through as much red-tape, but it still existed. Poison-types were a bitch and a half to get permits for if you went out of your home region since they were a pretty big threat to the environment. While poison-types were fairly cool, she preferred fire-types which rarely involved needing permits and going through red tape to own outside of a few specific instances such as the Magby-line.

"I'll have to look them up at some point," Steven murmured looking interested at the idea of a fire/poison-type.

"Just know that it'll be rare to find any trainer with one outside of Alola," Vali shook her head lightly, "They're hellishly expensive to import especially the female Salandit. The amount of red tape you'd have to go through to get one isn't worth it unless you're a serious poison-type master or really, really, really want one,"

"That seems to be how it is with most poison-type pokemon," Steven eyed her for a moment, "You wanted one, didn't you?"

"Yup," Vali wasn't going to lie about it, "But there isn't a chance I'm going to go through all that unless I get lucky or become a high level member of the League,"

They got all kinds of special passes and the like that made almost all the red tape go away. Steven patted her shoulder, "You'll get one eventually."

"Maybe when I retire from being a trainer and decide to live out the rest of my days in Alola," Vali would probably get bored fairly quickly if she did that.

* * *

Once all their pokemon were released back to them from Nurse Joy's care, they gathered what supplies they would need which mostly consisted of pokemon food and other pokemon care items that they needed. They didn't want their pokemon to eat Delia out of house and home. Vali also picked up the extra things Nurse Joy recommended for taking care of her baby Vulpix when he hatched. Once everything was packed away and they checked out of the pokemon center, she made the call to Professor Oak, "Hello, Vali. I take it that its time?"

"Yup!" Vali grinned at him, "I can't wait to be back in Pallet town for a little while,"

"She'll be waiting outside for you and Steven," Professor Oak told her.

"Thank you for this, Professor," Vali told him.

"It's no trouble," Professor Oak replied, "You've done a lot to help with my research so far and even helped me start some new projects. Now hurry up, Alakazam doesn't like to be kept waiting,"

Vali nodded and ended the call. Steven handed over her bag when she reached him, "Ready?"

"Yup, Alakazam should be waiting for us outside," Vali shouldered her bag, "So let's get going,"

They waved goodbye to Nurse Joy and left the pokemon center. Alakazam was waiting just like Professor Oak had said, " _Vali."_

"Hey, Alakazam," Vali grinned at the psychic-type, "You're looking well,"

 _"As are you, you're stronger now,"_ Alakazam replied with a pleased tone, " _Let us go, I do not like being out of my meditation room for long,"_

Vali and Steven quickly approached Alakazam. The psychic-type placed a hand on their shoulders and teleported them to Pallet Town. Alakazam released them when they landed in front of the Ketchum-Black-Potter residence. She hugged the psychic-type gently, "Thank you, Alakazam."

Alakazam patted her head, " _Go on, Miss Delia is very excited to see you."_

Vali released Alakazam and the psychic-type teleported away. Steven smiled as she moved to open the door, "Happy to be home?"

"Definitely," Vali opened the door and stepped inside, "Delia, we're home!"

"Vali!" Delia beamed at Vali as she walked out of the kitchen, "Welcome home,"

Vali hugged the brunette haired woman tightly, "I'm glad to be back."

Delia released her before smiling at Steven, "Welcome back, Steven."

"Thank you, Miss Delia," Steven told her.

"Now," Delia clapped her hands, "I know you two have things to do, so why don't you get your bags settled in your rooms. Vali, your room is through that hallway," Delia pointed to the hallway that Vali hadn't noticed before, "The guest room where Steven will be staying with us is on the left and your room is on the right,"

"You got the house renovated?" Vali asked as Delia led them down the hallway.

Delia nodded with a soft laugh, "We figured it would be for the best since you do have a family of pokemon with you."

Vali pushed open the door to her room and whistled at how big it was. It would definitely hold everyone at the current moment, "How didn't I notice this before?"

"A misdirection ward, we wanted it to be a surprise," Delia told her as Vali walked over to the big bed that would definitely be able to hold more than just her even when she got older, "Do you like it?"

Vali nodded as she put down her bag, "Definitely," She noticed the padded crib near the center of the room, "Did you get that for me?"

"Professor Oak thought it would be a good idea since you decided to come home for Christmas," Delia said as Vali looked around the room with a soft smile, "Your evolutionary items are right over here," Delia walked over to one of the cupboards set up and opened it to pull out a glass case, "The present you sent is in there as well,"

"Thank you, Delia," Vali hugged the woman after she put the case back, "For everything,"

"It's no trouble, Vali. You are my daughter after all," Delia hugged her back and only smiled while Vali tightened her hold.

* * *

After a few more moments, Vali and Steven left her home. They headed to the school in Pallet Town which catered to children of all ages. It was a wide-spread building with multiple levels and varying designs. Walking past the gate and the children running around the playgrounds on either side, Steven could tell they were getting a lot of attention from both the adults and students. He looked at Vali as they entered the building, "Professor Oak and Miss Delia told them about us coming, right?"

"Mhmm," Vali hummed sounding a bit distracted as they walked to what looked like the main office.

Vali pulled open the door which revealed a rather homey looking entrance room. A woman with graying brown hair and pale teal colored eyes looked up from the computer she was working on. She beamed at Vali, "If it isn't little Valkyrie Potter-Black, back in town for Christmas?"

"Of course, it would suck if I couldn't eat some of Delia's famous Christmas cookies," Vali replied earning a bark of laughter from the woman, "How have you been, Mary? My little brothers not causing too much chaos?"

"Nothing we can't handle," Mary replied before catching sight of him, "Who is this fine young man?"

"Steven Stone," Steven walked forward to shake the woman's hand, "I'm her traveling partner,"

"It's wonderful to meet you," Mary replied before looking at Vali, "Let me go inform Principle Hue that you two have arrived,"

Vali waved her off and Mary stood up to go to the Principles office. Steven looked at Vali as she observed the office with a light smile on her face, "Happy memories, Vali?"

"Yeah," Vali shook herself lightly and offered him a sheepish smile, "Sorry if I seem a bit distracted, I really did like this school outside of my fellow students,"

"You always did get along better with us adults, Vali," A warm voice said from nearby.

"Hard not to when most of the others were immature brats," Vali replied with an eye-roll, "You're looking well, Principle Hue,"

"You are as well. You're not quite as short as you were," Principle Hue replied with a chuckle as Vali rolled her eyes again, "I'm Principle Michel Hue,"

"Steven Stone," Steven replied as he shook the rather imposing man's hand.

The man was taller than Lt. Surge and just as built as the Vermilion City Gym Leader. He had a bright shock of violet hair and deep brown eyes that glittered with amusement. Instead of wearing a suit, he wore blue jeans, a t-shirt, and boots. He smiled warmly at Steven, "It's nice to meet you. Now, we should get going if we're going to have time before school lets out."

Principle Hue led the way out of the office and Vali asked, "How are Ash and Gary doing?"

"Not bad, Ash is actually doing a lot better than he had been back in the beginning," Principle Hue answered with a soft chuckle, "He's also a lot more patient since he got that Pidgey of his,"

"That's good," Vali smiled lightly, "They don't know about this, do they?"

"No, we kept it a secret from the students just as you asked," Principle Hue grinned, "The kids are going to love it," The man pushed open a pair of double doors, "Here you are, I'm going to go get the kids and bring them here,"

With that, Principle Hue left them in an empty gym and Vali moved to the center of the room with a light grin. Steven followed after her at a sedated place.

* * *

Principle Hue returned with Ash and Gary's class. Ash and Gary froze mid-step before shouting, "Vali?!"

"Hey, Brats!" Vali grinned at the two, "Are you going to hug me or what?"

Two blurs slammed into her while Ash's Pidgey left her human's head. Vali hugged the two tightly as murmurs exploded from the kids. The boys pulled away with Ash asking, "What are you doing here? I thought you wouldn't be back yet."

"I wanted to surprise you two and everyone was happy enough to help," Vali answered with a grin, "Now, go sit with your class, we've got a special treat for you guys,"

With great reluctance, the two did as she asked. Principle Hue spoke once the kids were seated, "Kids, we've got a special treat for you all. Two traveling trainers have decided to give us a little demonstration and one of them is a former student from here, Valkyrie Potter-Black!" Vali waved at them, "With her is Steven Stone who placed high in the last Hoenn Conference," Steven waved as well, "Now, I'm going to let them get to."

Principle Hue went to stand with the teacher for the class. Vali grinned at them, "First off, I prefer being called Vali. Ash and Gary are my adoptive little brothers in case you guys don't know. They're the reason we're doing that, so be sure to thank them," She saw their excited expressions, "Now, who wants to see some real-life pokemon?!"

Cheers exploded outward as Vali and Steven released their pokemon. All of them had been warned beforehand with Eevee immediately moving to settle on her shoulder's to stay away from the humans he didn't know. Empress had decided to stay in her pokeball mostly because most humans were beneath her notice. Steven spoke once everyone had calmed down, "Now, we're going to be doing a few attack demonstrations among other things. Does anyone have questions?"

One of the little girls raised her hand and Steven pointed at her, "What pokemon is they?"

The girl was pointing at Metagross'. Steven smiled lightly, "They're Metagross with one of them being shiny. They're a pokemon native to my home region of Hoenn and are a psychic/steel-type."

Awed gasps exploded from the kids, Vali spoke up again, "Any other questions?"

"What's with that Sandshrew?" One of the boys called out pointing to Idril.

"Idril is a shiny Sandshrew and is beginning to go through the process of evolution," Vali explained earning a confused look.

"What do you mean by 'process'? Isn't it a quick thing?" The boy asked.

Vali shook her head, "No, it doesn't happen all at once save for pokemon that require evolutionary stones or bug-types like Caterpie. It happens over time to give the pokemon's body time to get ready for the evolution. The full evolution of a pokemon is usually that ball of white light," Vali bent down to call Idril over to her and pointed out the spots where her spines were starting to come in, "Some pokemon like Idril will have physical signs of evolution show up first while others like Charmeleon start to show an increase in aggression."

* * *

Vali and Steven spent most of their time at the school answering questions while allowing their pokemon to be looked at by the kids. Many of the girls wanted to pet Eevee, but she convinced them it was a bad idea. They showed off some pokemon moves that were more showy than anything else. At the end, Vali and Steven decided to have a practice battle. They had agreed to keep things light to avoid doing damage to the school. Vali chose Pippin while Steven chose Mawile. Principle Hue was acting as the referee, "This is a one on one battle between Pallet Town's own Valkyrie Potter-Black and Steven Stone of Mossdeep City in Hoenn. The battle will end when one trainer's pokemon is either unable to battle or they return them. Trainers release your pokemon!"

"Pippin," Vali called out and Pippin raced onto the make-shift battlefield.

Everyone had a small laugh when he tripped up and ended up sprawled on the ground. Pippin got back up as Steven called out, "Mawile."

Mawile walked onto the battlefield with a small smile on her face at Pippin's antics. Pippin mewed at her earning a small laugh. Vali grinned slightly at their antics, "Pippin," He looked at her, "Start off with Tackle."

Pippin darted forward and attempted to slam into Mawile only to be dodged. Mawile replied with Iron Head causing Pippin to go flying. Pippin managed to correct his body to soften the landing and shook himself before darting forward again. Steven called out, "Mawile, Play Rough."

Mawile tackled Pippin and began to roughhouse with him causing a few scratches to appear when she got her fake mouth to grab him. Vali spoke as the kids whispered to each other, "You've probably noticed that Steven and I don't call out attacks too often, right?" Everyone looked at her and nodded, "In battles, you won't always have a chance to call out an attack which means that your pokemon will have to attack on its own otherwise it might get hurt. Can you think of where you've seen stuff like this?"

"In the Conference battles," One of the girls called out.

"Correct, do you know why?" Vali asked as Pippin managed to free himself and used Charge.

The girl had a concentrated look on her face as she said, "Because the battles are too fast placed for the trainer to be able to give their pokemon too many commands."

"Correct," Vali grinned lightly before calling out, "Pippin, Spark and Ice Face,"

Pippin used the electricity he'd charged up and sent sparks towards Mawile. Mawile brushed them off and grimaced when Pippin sank his icy fangs into Mawile's fake mouth. Mawile shook Pippin loose before hitting him with Iron Head again followed up by Crunch. Rather than continue the battle, Vali returned Pippin earning shouts of confusion while Principle Hue called out, "Winner Steven Stone and Mawile."

Vali spoke once everyone had calmed down, "I ended the battle there because I knew Pippin wouldn't win the battle despite having a type advantage. He is a younger and weaker pokemon than Mawile who's been with Steven for awhile now. Rather than push Pippin and get him badly hurt, I saved him the pain while ensuring he'd be able to fight another day," She looked at them seriously, "Pokemon battles aren't fun and games kids. The pokemon will get hurt especially during high level battles. The pokemon that you will one day call your partner is going to be counting on you as much as you'll count on them."

One of the kids spoke up, "Ash's told us that you're going to be a fire-type master, how come you have non-fire-type pokemon?"

"Just because I want to be a fire-type master doesn't mean I can't have non-fire-type pokemon," Vali smiled at her pokemon, "When you find a pokemon that's meant to be yours, you won't care if they're not the type of pokemon you want or even a pokemon you considered catching. You'll know somewhere deep down that they're yours and you're theirs,"

* * *

Vali and Steven left with the two boys amid stares of awe from the students of the school who were eyeing their visible pokemon with excited eyes that struggled to take in every detail possible. Balto walked happily beside Vali with Pikachu sitting on shoulders. Steven had his first Metagross floating on his right. Ash and Gary were both strutting a bit while Ash's Pidgey was taking shelter in her pokeball. Snow was starting to fall slowly to the ground, she glanced at the clouds and commented, "It looks like it's just going to be a light dusting."

"Hey, Vali," Ash spoke up as they passed the gates, "Do you think we can see everyone closer up once we get home?"

"Sure though remember that Eevee isn't a big fan of most humans and Empress isn't either now that I think about it," Vali warned him earning a nod and she looked at Gary, "Are you coming home with us?"

Gary nodded lightly, "Gramps prefers it when I stay with Delia and Ash after school."

"I don't blame him. That big house probably isn't fun to be in when you're alone," Vali commented as she patted his shoulder, "It'll be nice to spend a bit more time with you. By the way, how much homework do you two have?"

"Just a few worksheets, they aren't giving us so much with the winter holidays coming up," Gary replied as Balto shifted to walk between them and butted his head against Gary's hip, "Hey, Balto," Balto nuzzled the boy and wagged his tail when Gary scratched behind his ears, "He feels a lot warmer now,"

Vali let out a soft laugh, "That's because he's a lot stronger now, it won't be long before I evolve him."

"Can we be there when you do?" Ash asked almost hesitantly.

Vali looked down at Balto, "What do you say, do you want them to be with us when you evolve?" Balto paused in his steps for a moment before nodding with a bark of agreement, "Looks like you two are going to be in for a treat then, it'll be a little bit longer before I do. Professor Oak mentioned his Arcanine wanting to battle Balto before he evolved to gauge how strong he is. You two can be there when we do it."

"Awesome!" Ash jumped up and down with an excited expression on his face, "I can't wait to watch it!"

"Have you been to the lab yet?" Gary asked her curiously.

Vali shook her head, "Not yet, we're going to wait until tomorrow to head to the lab."

"Vali, you went home before you came to see us, right?" Ash asked her.

Vali nodded with a small smirk already knowing what he wanted to ask, "Yes, we had to get our stuff settled. Before you ask, Delia is making cook-"

Ash promptly took off running with Gary yelping and shouting, "Oi! Don't eat all of them you glutton!"

With that, Gary took off after the other boy. Vali burst out laughing almost sending Pikachu falling off her shoulders. Pikachu jumped onto Steven's stable shoulders with a huff. Calming herself down, She looked at Steven when he asked, "I take it that that's normal?"

"Delia's Christmas cookies are the best and everyone tends to rush around attempting to get some before they're gone," Vali shook her head lightly and took Pikachu from Steven once she finished giggling, "Delia makes sure we all get an equal amount of cookies, so I'm not in a rush to get them. She's probably making more this year so you, your pokemon, and my pokemon can try them,"

"So that's one of your Christmas traditions?" Steven asked as they got closer to the house.

Vali nodded as Pikachu moved to settle on her shoulders again, "Yeah, it's a lot of fun making them," She glanced at Steven, "Do you have any traditions of your own?"

"Calling my father is pretty much it," Steven shoved his hands into his pockets.

Vali bumped the shoulder not occupied with Pikachu against his earning a startled look, "Don't look so down, Steven. It's nice that you can at least call him during Christmas and talk. It's more than I had before I was eleven and learned about my magic," She offered him a warm smile as he looked at her, "Enjoy your time with us, you might find a few more traditions you can share with your father."

"Maybe," Steven shook his head and smiled at her, "I really can't thank you enough for this,"

"Hey, you're my traveling partner and friend. It would be horrible if I didn't invite you over for Christmas when you didn't have anywhere really to go," Vali grinned at him, "Besides, I get to see how well you're aim is in a snowball fight,"

"I haven't really had a snowball fight before since Hoenn is usually a bit too warm for snow outside of a select few areas," Steven said making her gasp in mock-horror.

"You poor unfortunate soul. We'll have to remedy that immediately," Vali opened the door to her house and called out, "Ash, Gary, we've got a problem. Poor Steven has never had a proper snowball fight,"

"What?!" Was shouted from the kitchen.

"Seriously?" Gary looked at Steven in horror alongside Ash as they appeared.

Vali nodded with a stern face, "Yes, I am afraid so," She patted Steven's shoulder trying to keep a straight face at his rather lost look, "Once the snow is perfect for a fight, we'll have to show him the ropes."

Gary and Ash nodded with solemn determination, "Of course, Vali."

"Now, are those cookies I smell?" Vali watched their eyes widen.

"Mine!" Was shouted in chorus before the two rushed back in the direction of the kitchen with Balto racing after them and Pikachu following at a sedated pace with his nose twitching.

Vali turned to Steven and snickered at the expression on his face as Metagross recalled themselves due to not fitting through the door, "Steven, you okay?"

"Just a bit thrown," Steven shook his head as he shut the door, "I wasn't expecting that,"

"In this place, you have to push your expectations aside since two magicals live here alongside Ash and Delia with visits from members of the Oak family," Vali took off her coat placing it onto the coat rack and taking off her boots which were put into the cubbyhole with her name over it, "Once you do, you'll be just fine,"

Steven followed her example and they moved towards the kitchen, "I have a feeling that our time here is going to be very interesting."

"Probably," Vali smiled lightly, "Just be glad you have someone to help you understand everything that goes on here, I don't intend to leave you to the sharks so to speak,"

"So Ash and Gary were telling me all about your demonstration at the school," Delia said as they entered the kitchen, "Are you going to be doing more?"

"Yes, but not on such a small scale since there isn't a lot of time before winter break starts," Vali picked up one of the pine-tree shaped cookies and handed it to Steven before grabbing the Santa-hat wearing Growlithe head that Delia had obviously made for her, "We'll be going near the end of the day so that the kids can still get their regular classes just with some added fun afterwards,"

Vali took a bite and let out a pleased sigh as the sweet goodness of a freshly baked Christmas cookie hit her tongue. Delia let out a laugh at her expression before turning to Steven, "How did you like it, Steven?"

"It was interesting, I'm looking forward to exploring Pallet Town while I can," Steven followed Vali to take a seat at the kitchen table since Ash and Gary had taken the island seats that didn't have anything sitting on them.

"You'll have to be careful once it really starts snowing," Delia warned him, "It can pack onto the ground rather thickly and turn to ice in some places,"

"I'll keep him safe," Vali promised earning a light nod from Delia, "Where's Siri?"

"He had to go take care of some things at Headquarters," Delia answered as she put another tray of cookies into the oven, "He should be home at some point tomorrow or the day after depending on how things go," Delia smiled lightly, "As for your Houndour egg, Professor Oak is watching over it at the lab,"

"I'll grab it tomorrow," Vali got up, "I'll be right back,"

Vali went to her room and grabbed her Vulpix egg with the case before returning. She set it on the table, "Ash, Gary, want to see my Vulpix egg?"

"It's kind of small," Gary commented as the two boys got closer.

"He is supposed to be the runt of the litter, Gary," Vali explained as she gently took the egg out of it's case and began cleaning the surface.

"He? How do you know it'll be a boy?" Ash asked her curiously.

Vali looked up from the egg as Balto walked over and jumped onto the seat next to her to get closer to the egg, "All pokemon centers in the major cities have these scanners that can tell Nurse Joy all about it's health including the gender though you'd have to request it."

"Cool," Ash reached out before hesitating, "Can I touch him?"

"Go ahead, but gently," Vali looked at Gary and nodded to him showing that he could touch the egg too.

Ash breath out a gasp of awe, "So warm, it's kind of pulsing."

"That's it's heart beat, isn't it?" Gary asked with bright eyes.

Vali nodded lightly with a laugh, "Yup. He'll be hatching pretty soon. Once he's old enough that I don't need to constantly keep an eye on him, would you two like to play with him?"

"We have to be gentle, right?" Gary asked as he removed his hand, "Baby pokemon are fragile,"

"Yes though I'll have one of my other pokemon watching over you guys to make sure everything is okay," Vali told them as Ash removed his hand.

Vali resumed cleaning the egg up as Ash asked Steven, "Have you ever had an egg?"

Steven nodded with a light smile, "Yes. I received an Aron egg from a tournament that was going on. She's very dear to me though sometimes she acts a bit too much like an overly affectionate puppy. I'm lucky my other pokemon can keep her from hurting me when she gets too excited."

"Is she still an Aron?" Gary asked him curiously.

"No, she evolved all the way into an Aggron two months before my last conference," Steven smiled lightly, "She actually helped me get my spot in the top eight,"

"How long did it take her to fully evolve?" Ash asked as the boys moved to sit back at the kitchen island.

Vali looked at Steven in curiosity as she hadn't heard this before. Steven took a bite of his cookie with a thoughtful look on his face, "It took her almost a full two years even with constant battles. Steel-type pokemon grow fairly slowly just like Dragon-type pokemon after all."

"Two years? You have a lot of patience," Gary grimaced slightly.

"You need it in order to properly raise certain pokemon, Gary," Vali finished cleaning up the egg and returned it to the case, "It will always be worth it in the end. It's going to take my Larvitar, Terra, awhile to fully grow, but when she does, she'll be a powerful Tyranitar,"

"Do they really eat dirt and rocks?" Ash cut in before Gary or Vali could say anything else.

Vali nodded with a light laugh, "Yes. It's a big part of their food source same as any rock-type, ground-type, or steel-type."

"Vali," Vali looked over at Delia, "Why don't you release your pokemon in the living room? I'm sure they'd appreciate being out and about. You two, Steven," Delia added sternly, "It doesn't make any sense why they should be sitting in their pokeballs when they don't have to,"

"Right," Vali stood up and moved towards living room after picking up her egg case.

Steven followed her and they released their pokemon. Thankfully, it seemed that Sirius had added a few expansion charms to the house, so they didn't have to worry about the bigger pokemon being cramped or not fitting. Everyone looked around curiously save for Smaug who eyed the room with a smirk. Clearly he remembered the last time he was here as a Charmander. Walking over to him after placing the egg case down on the low coffee table, Vali reached up to scratch under his chin, "Brings back memories, huh?" Smaug nodded with a smug grin, "You were only a little Charmander back then, but now you're a big strong Charizard."

Smaug preened under her words and leaned down to nuzzle her lightly. Yeah, it was a little nostalgic to be back here after Smaug had reached his final evolution and her pokemon family had expanded past its two original members.

* * *

Vali had trouble not giving into the urge to just ignore her table manners and gobble up her dinner as fast as possible. It was the first time since leave Pallet Town all those months ago that she'd had a home-cooked meal. It was also the first time outside of pokemon center food that she could actually eat as much as she wanted. Everything was absolutely delicious, she was definitely going to have a little bit of trouble eating trainer meals once they got back on the road again after their break. She looked at Gary when he asked, "How long will you two be here?"

"A month," Vali answered after swallowing her bite of pot-roast, "We all could use a good rest from traveling,"

"That will also give your baby Vulpix time to mature enough that being on the road won't be too dangerous," Delia added as Vali went for seconds, "Have you thought of a name for them yet?"

Vali shook her head, "No. I decided that I'd wait until my baby pokemon have had their first few battles before I give them a name if they want one. By then, I usually have some kind of thoughts on what they could be called."

"What about Pikachu?" Ash asked causing said pokemon to raise his head, "How come he doesn't have a nickname?"

"He didn't want one last time I checked," Vali answered as she reached down to pet Balto's head, "I'm planning on asking again when I evolve him,"

"When are you going to do that?" Gary asked looked at her curiously.

"After I have Professor Oak check him over to make sure any lingering poison in his system is gone," Vali drank some of her moo-moo milk, "It's very dangerous to evolve a pokemon if they're poisoned,"

Gary gained a look of comprehension on his face, "I remember reading about that in one of Gramps' books. It's because the poison can weaken a pokemon's body during evolution to the point it can die or become malformed. Right?"

Vali nodded lightly, "Yup which is why you need to keep an eye on any pokemon you have and take them to Nurse Joy if they're showing any signs of evolution. Nurse Joy can tell you a lot about what your pokemon needs when it evolves and its a good practice to make sure your pokemon are checked over any time you can."

"It can get expensive though," Gary pointed out.

"If you have a trainers license, it's actually free to have your pokemon checked over and healed by the pokemon center," Steven spoke up earning a confused look, "The fees start to pile up when you have deep examinations done on your pokemon. Even then, they're at a discount,"

"Of course, it's easier when you work for the League since they're pretty big on making sure every pokemon you have is in the best state possible for when they need you," Vali added on, "The League cuts down on a lot of costs when you work for them. Its why so many trainers do their best to get chosen for the various training programs offered,"

Ash frowned slightly, "But what if someone were to become a Pokemon Master, how would that work?"

Vali took a bite of pot roast as she tried to figure out a way to answer that question. Steven managed to work out an answer for that one, "Well that isn't something we can answer since there hasn't been a Pokemon Master in years. No one has managed to become a Master of all types not to mention place first in all the Leagues, beat all the gyms, beat all the elite fours, and beat all the champions."

"But it can be done, right?" Ash asked looking at Steven with a desperate expression on his face.

Steven nodded lightly "Yes, but it's a very long road to the point. It took the last Pokemon Master until almost the end of his life to reach that point after all."

"I'll do it," Ash vowed.

"But to do it, you'll need to grow up first which means eating your dinner and finishing up your homework," Delia told him earning a pout.

Ash grumbled softly, but resumed eating his dinner. Gary shook his head and asked, "Vali, what do you plan on doing anyway?"

"I want to become a fire-type master and eventually become a member of an Elite Four," Vali answered after swallowing what she had in her mouth, "I want to discover the mysteries of this world too,"

"I plan on becoming a steel-type master and becoming the champion of Hoenn before I turn 16," Steven told Gary when the boy turned to him, "I also want to explore every cave system in the world and take over my father's company eventually when he retires,"

"That'll be a lot of work, Steven," Delia commented earning a light shrug.

"I've been working my way towards it since before becoming a trainer, Miss Delia," Steven told her, "It might be a lot of work, but I'm willing to do it,"

* * *

Professor Oak came by not long after the boys had finished their dinner and homework. The aged Professor took Gary home after telling Steven and Vali to come by the lab after they got up in the morning. Ash had the two trainers tell him stories behind every picture that the witch had taken until it was time for him to go to bed. Delia smiled as Vali left Ash's room after the boy and his Pidgey had fallen asleep, "He really missed you."

"I really missed him too," Vali bent down to pick up Pippin when the Shinx stumbled into her, "I missed everyone a lot,"

"Do you regret leaving on your journey?" Delia asked as they headed downstairs to join Steven in the living room.

"Despite some parts of it, no," Vali shook her head with a soft smile as she scratched behind Pippin's ears, "I think it's really helped heal me from what happened in my past,"

Delia smiled softly, "It's easy to see it. You're eyes are brighter now than they were when you left," They reached the landing, "Go get settled, I'm going to go make hot-chocolate."

"Ash is going to be put out when he finds out we're drinking hot-chocolate without him," Vali teased with a slight grin.

Delia winked at her, "Better not tell him then."

Delia headed off into the kitchen and Vali moved to the living room. She sat down against Smaug's side as the Charizard snoozed a bit by the fire-place and Steven looked up from his pokenav, "Ash and Pidgey asleep then?"

"Yup," Vali released Pippin as Smaug lazily raised his head to look at her, "Falling asleep, Smaug?" Smaug snorted softly and shifted to let her lean back against his stomach, "I don't blame you, it's nice in here,"

"I'm not surprised you'd say that since you've been falling asleep in here since you first came to stay with Ash and I," Delia walked in with a tray of mugs and handed one to Vali.

"I can't say I'm surprised since it really is comfortable in here," Steven commented as he accepted a mug of hot-chocolate from Delia, "Thank you,"

"It's no problem," Delia replied as she set the tray down on the coffee table and picked up her own drink before settling down on one of the two couches.

Balto and Pikachu joined her moments later to cuddle up against the brunette haired woman earning a smile. Steven took a sip of his hot-chocolate, "This is really good, is that peppermint I taste?"

"Mhmm," Delia hummed lightly as she scratched behind Balto's ears, "Ash loves it,"

"Miss Delia, thank you again for allowing me to join your family for Christmas," Steven told Delia as Mawile curled up against his side and Lileep drowsily drooped against his legs.

"It's no trouble. No one should be alone on Christmas," Delia told him, "Have you talk to your father lately?"

"Yes. He wishes for me to thank you for allowing my pokemon and I to stay with you," Steven replied as he put down his pokenav to rub the base of Lileep's head earning a gurgling hum from the odd-plant-like creature, "He's happy that I'm not alone this Christmas with only my pokemon to keep me company,"

"Not that pokemon aren't good company," Vali added earning a light laugh.

"Very true," Steven drank some more hot-chocolate, "May I ask if there is anything I can do to repay you?"

"You've done enough already by traveling with Vali and helping to keep her safe," Delia waved off his question, "All I ask is that you try to avoid damaging the house and help keep the boys from getting into trouble when you can,"

* * *

Vali woke up in the morning feeling a steady ache in her neck and side. She carefully got up and figured out why when she opened her eyes. She'd fallen asleep in the living room curled up against Smaug and her other pokemon. Looking towards Steven, she found him in much the same position as her only he was asleep on a couch rather than the floor. Biting back a yawn, she began the daily task of getting out of her pokemon's clutches and going about her morning business. When she got out of the bathroom and headed for the kitchen, Delia was up and making breakfast already.

Delia turned her head when Vali entered the kitchen and smiled, "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah though I really regret passing out on the floor," Vali rubbed at her sore neck, "Remind me not to do that again if I have a chance,"

"I will," Delia giggled at her, "Now, would you like to help make breakfast?"

"I'll take preparing the pokemon food," Vali decided earning a small laugh, "There will be a lot of hungry pokemon getting up soon,"

Vali spent almost an hour preparing breakfast with Delia. Steven joined them not long after Vali started preparing the pokemon food and after getting a cup of coffee, he began helping out where he could. Once breakfast was made, a loud thump sounded from upstairs followed by a rather large racket causing Steven to ask, "What's going on?"

"Pidgey must have woken up Ash," Delia let out a soft laugh, "She's taken it upon herself to keep him from getting up late,"

Ash walked into the kitchen with Pidgey on his shoulder looking more than a little roughed up. He hugged Vali tightly when he saw her causing Pidgey to abandon ship for her breakfast. She hugged him in return, "Morning, sleepy-head."

"Morning, Vali," Ash yawned softly, "Did you help mom make breakfast?"

"Just the pokemon food and bacon," Vali answered as she pushed him to sit down, "So I heard quite the racket a few minutes ago, what happened?"

"Pidgey woke me up," Ash answered as he filled his plate of food while Vali took a seat next to Steven at the kitchen table, "What are you planning on doing today?"

"Steven and I are going to be at the lab until it's time for us to do our demonstration at the school," Vali answered as she began filling her plate, "Once you get done your homework, we should show Steven around town together,"

Ash looked a bit disappointed, "You won't be battling Professor Oak today?"

"Not today," Vali ate some of her breakfast, "We're going to wait until Saturday when you don't have school so you and Gary can watch,"

"I guess waiting two days won't be that bad," Ash muttered softly.

Vali rolled her eyes at him before going back to eating her breakfast.

* * *

After getting dressed for the day and seeing Ash off to school with Gary, Vali and Steven headed to Professor Oak's lab once they'd collected their pokemon from around the house. An aid greeted them when they entered, "Vali! Professor Oak's in the back. He said to send you two right on back when you'd arrived."

Vali felt a bit nostalgic as she made her way towards the back rooms where she'd spent most of her time in Pallet Town other than the Corral. She knocked on the door to his office and opened it when Professor Oak called out, "Come in."

"Morning, Professor," Vali held out the plate of cookies that Delia had sent them with, "Delia sent these along,"

"Oh bless her heart," Professor Oak took the cookies and put them on his desk, "Now, how about I check over your pokemon?"

"Sounds good, Professor," Vali said as they left Professor Oak's office.

Professor Oak led them to the part of his lab where the various pokemon in his care were given their check ups. Professor Oak took Balto, Pikachu, and Lileep's pokeballs to check them over himself. Lileep was being checked over to see just how much longer it would take for the prehistoric pokemon to evolve as well as if Steven needed to adjust the fossil pokemon's diet during this time anymore than he already had. All their other pokemon save for Eevee were given over to the Professors' aids to be checked over. Eevee would be checked over by Professor Oak himself in a few days once the League sponsored pokemon psychologist arrived to do the evolution pokemon's psych-evaluation. While Vali was curious about what Eevee's results would be, she dreaded them too since there was always a chance that she hadn't done enough to help him.

Professor Oak set the pokeballs into a holder, "Steven, would you mind us studying Lileep while you're here?"

"Not all, my father was actually hoping that you would seeing as there is still a lot we don't know about fossil pokemon and any knowledge you can give us will definitely help with the research," Steven answered as Professor Oak turned on a machine and set the pokeball holder into it, "All I ask is to keep me informed,"

"Of course," Professor Oak began fiddling with the monitor attached to the machine, "Now this will tell us their overall health, it will give us a base to work with,"

* * *

The morning hours were whittled away by Professor Oak's rather in-depth examination of all three pokemon. Vali didn't quite understand everything, but she was able to understand that Balto and Pikachu were at their peak health which was the perfect time to evolve them. Lileep was on the verge of evolution though he required a bit more water in his diet. Mineral water would be the best, it would give Lileep a boost in nutrients that would ensure he was at peak health for his evolution. The only pokemon that had anything worrying about them was Idril, but it was a problem that could easily be dealt with. A few of her spines were coming in a bit crooked which was taken care of by a small tool that Professor Oak had laying around the lab. It corrected the spines slowly over the course of a few hours. At this stage in their development, the spines weren't quite set in Idril's back allowing them to be moved without any pain. While it was a bit uncomfortable for the pokemon, the spines weren't attached to any nerves just yet.

Vali and Steven left to do their demonstration which was pretty fun though some of the students reminded her of Draco with his guard dogs back at Hogwarts. Despite that, the day was rather enjoyable. Ash and Gary accompanied them around town with Steven stopping at the local market to pick up some mineral water for Lileep. They headed back home so the boys could do their homework and eat dinner before Gary was picked up by Professor Oak.

* * *

The next few days consisted of similar activities with Vali showing Steven around Pallet Town and the surrounding farmland as well as the Corral. She showed him her favorite spots which were mostly focused around the corral and lab since that was where she spent a majority of her time in Pallet Town. Ash and Gary helped her out with the two trainers having to step in a few times to keep the boys from wreaking havoc. Nights were spent usually telling stories about their journey to Ash or going through pictures before the boy went to bed. When Saturday came, Vali and her pokemon were woken up by Ash shouting, "Vali! Wake up!"

The door slammed open allowing Ash to enter though thankfully he didn't try to jump on her bed. Groaning softly as she carefully sat up, she asked, "Ash, why do I have to wake up? It's," She checked the time and goggled at the fact it was six in the morning, "What are you doing awake at six in the morning on a Saturday of all days when it isn't even Christmas?"

"You're battling Professor Oak today, right?" Ash asked as he trotted closer to the bed with Pidgey sleepily preening his head.

"Not until after lunch, Ash," Vali rubbed at her eyes, "Go back to sleep, Ash. It's too early to be awake,"

"But Steven's awake," Ash said earning a small huff.

"Steven is doing work for his father, I am not," Vali told him, "Now either join us or go bug Steven, I didn't fall asleep until late last night because my egg began to move,"

Ash pouted a bit before climbing onto her bed. Everyone grumpily made room for the boy with Celina stealing Pidgey from Ash. Once they settled down, Ash let out a yawn and dropped his head down next her, "It's really warm in here, Vali."

"Fire-types, Ash," Vali said as Eevee moved to settle away from the boy.

Pippin, Pikachu, and Balto snuggled up to him pretty quickly while her less tolerating pokemon moved away from him though they still stayed on the bed. Eventually, they all fell back asleep and didn't wake up until a more reasonable time which was three hours later when Delia had them get up for breakfast.

* * *

 **Okay ladies and gentlemen, I have a question. What name do you think fits Pikachu? Nothing like Sparky or Thunder. Something unique and please give a reason why you think it fits him. I'm looking for some inspiration. Whoever I end up picking will be credited with coming up with the name on my profile where all information about Vali's pokemon is listed alongside my stories. Please and Thank you.**

 **Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and all the other holidays this season plus a happy new years to you all. Be safe and responsible for the most part.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997: A bit shorter than usual, but I felt this was the best place to end the chapter. There's a lot of information, I have a feeling that I'm going to be getting a lot of questions about the chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it.**

 **Reviews:**

 **AyameKitsune : Tempest doesn't really fit him since he's an electric-type and tempests are something to do with wind/air.**

 **mariaalexandradelcarmen. eljuririsquez: Glad you liked it.**

 **frankieu : I'm glad you liked it. Tempting name, but I wasn't really going for gods with him.**

 **DemonicLightning : Thank you.**

 **dragonsage1993 : As I have pointed out before, all Vali's pokemon are listed on my profile page. Sorry, but no on Flash.**

 **Twister60 : Glad you liked it.**

 **bleach103 : Interesting.**

 **dloold87 : All of them tempting.**

 **black winged angel of death: Not really since he isn't impulsive or anything.**

 **darkworkangel : Not really a late update.**

 **Jostanos : All the names are interesting and tempting save for the ones involving gods since that seems a bit overdone, ya know?**

 **KyuubiChild717 : Definitely in the final running!**

 **Artofnerdistry : Yeah, but not going to happen since naming Pikachu after gods seems a bit over done.**

 **mysterydungeonpikafan00 : A bit overdone.**

 **BioHazard82 : Bit overdone.**

 **Selphina : Heavily tempting and is currently in the finale running.**

 **gemava : Interesting though Thorin doesn't really fit who Pikachu is to be honest. **

**Kitsune Kala: *Hastily shoves list of Vali's possible pokemon underneath a pillow* What gave you that idea? Like the idea, but probably not since naming Pikachu after a god seems a bit over done.**

 **Goldenfightergirl : Interesting, but doesn't really fit him in my mind.**

 **Anonymous1684 : It doesn't really fit him though.**

 **Koyo Takara Kitsune : Nice thought, but a bit overdone.**

 **Zel of the Sharrugan : I LOVE that show! Tempting, but yeah that would fit the Magnemite-line just a bit better or maybe the Electabuzz-line.**

 **Tati334 : Bit cut off don't you think?**

 **Zeru'Xil : Tempting, but probably not.**

 **kfawcett1998 : Funny name, but yeah not going to happen.**

 **EuphemiaDelight : Unique and interesting...In the final running.**

 **ali5jazi5 : Probably not.**

 **Lady Kaiki: Thank you!**

 **Gracie15Trowa : Probably not, but an interesting suggestion none the less.**

 **syphiralae : I know. Honestly far too much investment with godly names.**

 **comodo50 : Yeah no, I already have it written on my profile. Yeah no to the name, godly names for Pikachu is a bit overdone.**

 **dwl3950 : Thank you.**

 **StrangerChild : An interesting concept that I'll definitely think about.**

 **Poseidon93 : Here it is.**

 **ThunderClaw03 : Nope.**

 **Teon : An interesting concept, but probably not. Might end up using it for another pokemon...maybe.**

 **GintsukiKyu : Tempting and might've gone for it had it not been for the fact that I didn't want to name him after anything godly.**

 **mewmaster89 : Yeah nope.**

 **TheMarphasChappers : *Inwardly squeals upon seeing your review* I'm glad that you like my story! You shoulder read Travler by the straight elf since that's what inspired me to write like this in the beginning. *Sees second part and grins* So happy to see another fan of Magi! It's so rare that I actually get to talk to anyone that likes it. **

**PikaMew1288 : No to the godly names, no to the others because they seem a bit dull.**

 **Lyndai : Tempting especially the last one. I'm glad you like my fic!**

 **AnonChan1 : Answered your questions via PM. No to Thor as it's over done. Thinking about the other two though.**

 **Sn : You'll have to see.**

 **cerezo. dulce11: No.**

 **Misrel : Hope you enjoy this chapter.**

 **FFZeru54 : I'm glad you like it.**

 **lovingthisbook : 1) Yes. 2) Perhaps. 3) Going to try, maybe. 4) I try to update at least once a month after I update.**

 **xxMockingbirdxxx : Love the reasoning, but I'm not doing godly names for Pikachu.**

 **LordNemesis : Glad you like it.**

 **Yananikki : Glad you like the story, but no godly names for Pikachu.**

 **LegendOfPerseus : No godly names, but thanks for the suggestion.**

 **Guest : Nope.**

 **moonseeds99 : Tempting, heavily tempting, but that name is planned for another pokemon that may be appearing sometime soon.**

 **Princess of the Phoenix: No, but thank you for the suggestion. **

**reptoholic : Lots of reviews which means I'll be replying to them here:**

 **Review 1) I'm glad you think that way.  
Review 2) Maybe. Yes to all three.  
Review 3) Probably not, but it might happen.  
Review 4) She has black hair. Gray and white spots.  
Review 5) That pic is my profile pic, I'm not planning on making her an animagus.  
Review 6) We'll just have to wait and see.  
Review 7) You'll see.  
Review 8) It needs to be more realistic. Elemental creatures and all.  
Review 9) Cool.  
Review 10) Glad you like it.  
Review 11) We'll see.  
Review 12) We will have to see what happens. She'll get them eventually. No to Metagross. No, but she'll be getting a psychic-type at some point. In the future, my friend. Did the bottom part get a bit cut off? Remember she is only physically 10 right now, so it'll be a bit longer for physical changes to really start happening.**

* * *

 **Words: 18,086**

* * *

Chapter 13

* * *

Steven looked up from his Pokenav when Vali stumbled into the kitchen looking more than a little tired. He didn't think she'd had a nightmare or a vision otherwise she would've been pale. He watched her stumble over to the coffee pot and pour herself a mug, "Long night?"

"The egg started to move last night," Vali answered as she began to put a small mountain of sugar and a river a cream into her mug, "Ash woke me up three hours after I finally went to sleep along with my pokemon,'

That would explain why Vali looked so tired, Steven understood just how breathtaking watching your first pokemon egg start to show those small signs of hatching. He did have to grimace at the amount of sugar she was putting into her body, "Perhaps you shouldn't use so much sugar."

Vali looked up from her mug with a grimace, "I'd rather be able to drink this, Steven. Coffee is a bit too bitter unless I use that much sugar."

"You shouldn't be drinking coffee anyway since you're still a growing girl," Delia chimed in as she set a plate in front of Vali, "That's the only cup you'll be drinking today, Vali,"

Vali gave Delia a mock salute, "Yes, Delia."

Delia shook her head lightly, "Where's Ash? I thought I'd gotten you both up?"

"Getting dressed, he'll also be cleaning his bedroom after breakfast," Vali took a sip of her coffee.

"Thank you, Vali," Delia giggled with a soft laugh and pressed a kiss to Vali's cheek.

Vali offered the woman an innocent look, "I have no idea what you're thanking me for, Delia. I didn't do anything."

"Uh huh," Delia shook her head.

Delia returned to cooking breakfast and Steven gave Vali an amused look, "You told Ash he couldn't watch the battle unless his room was clean, didn't you?"

Vali just smiled at him and began eating her breakfast. Steven followed her example as Ash made his way downstairs. Breakfast was a bit quieter than usual though it wasn't too surprising since Vali wasn't in the mood to make conversation. Ash was pouting at his sister who just smiled serenely at him. Delia was observing the two with more than a little amusement. Steven had to admit that this wasn't something he was used to since his home had been a mansion growing up and his father rarely around after his mother's death. It was a lot more homier and warm compared to the mansion that had been in his family for generations. When he eventually got a place of his own, he would definitely want something like this even when he became Hoenn's Champion.

* * *

After Breakfast, Ash went to go clean his room while Vali took her pokemon outside save for Idril since the Sandshrew was the most vulnerable to the cold and snow with her coming evolution. She had her fire-types carefully clear away the snow without causing any fires before taking a seat with them all around her. She spoke as they settled down, "Okay, today is going to be a special day. Balto will be battling his sire and will be evolving sometime after that," Various sounds of congratulations were given to her oldest pokemon family member, "Pikachu will be evolving today since Professor Oak cleared him. Pikachu," Pikachu looked at her, "After you evolve, will you be taking on a nickname?" Pikachu nodded after a few moments and she smiled at him, "I'll do my best to find a name you'll take pride in," She scratched underneath his chin, "Now, I think it's time I tell you the plan for our time in Pallet Town. Once we're done the demonstrations at the school, we'll be taking a few days to relax. That means we won't be training at all," She held up a hand to stall any protests, "I know that you guys love training and getting stronger. I love it too, but we need to relax. It'll allow our bodies to completely heal from any strain their under and allow us to completely refill on our energy. I'll be pampering all of you quite thoroughly."

Vali paused to allow them all the enjoy the knowledge they'd be pampered. Even Empress loved being pampered despite the fact she still didn't really like the fire-type master-in-training, it wasn't a surprise since she was really thorough when pampering them. She spoke after a few moments, "During the rest of our stay here, we will be getting some in depth training from Professor Oak and his pokemon. You'll be put through your paces and probably regret not enjoying yourselves more during the days of rest you'll have," She grinned at their dubious looks, "The man and his pokemon might be old, but they were Champions back in the day," She relaxed against Smaug's side, "Smaug, I want you to be careful. You're going to be battling Professor Oak's Charizard on his territory," Smaug looked at her with an eager expression, "He's a lot older than you and more experienced. You aren't going to win," Smaug gained a hurt expression, "Smaug, it isn't that I don't think you'll win eventually against him, but he's had decades of experience battling," She reached out and gently scratched beneath his right eye, "I want you to do your best against him, but don't get yourself killed. I'd rather lose a battle than lose one of my family. Okay?" Smaug snorted out a small puff of smoke before nodding, "That goes for the rest of you who'll get to battle against Professor Oak's team. Losing will happen, we aren't even close to being able to fight them to a stand still. What I want each of you to do while you battle is to do your best and put your hearts into it. This is where we'll see just how far you've come since becoming my pokemon,"

Pippin let out a soft mew tilting his head at her and she smiled at him, "Empress, Pele, and you will be battling as well. I know we haven't be training together for long, but this way we'll know just where you three stand. I'll also be getting extra information on how to train you three. Especially you, Empress," Empress snorted at her, "If I'm going to help you become the strongest Salamence out there, I'm going to need as much information as possible. Professor Oak has a Dragonite that probably won't mind taking you under her wing for a bit."

Empress perked up at the mention of another dragon-type and Vali wondered if she could convince Dragonite to help her connect with the Bagon better. Dragonite would probably do it if only for the amusement that would probably come from it. That old lady tended to get bored since nothing much happened in Pallet Town most of the time, she used to pop by the school back when the witch went and spend the day playing with the various school children that had the courage to approach her. Dragonite was one of Professor Oak's pokemon outside of Arcanine and Alakazam that actually seemed to enjoy it when she payed them a visit. She wondered how Dragonite was doing and couldn't wait to see the dragon-type who didn't show any sign of age compared to the other pokemon Professor Oak had trained. Then again, it wasn't that surprising seeing as dragon-type pokemon aged slowly to the point no one was sure when they would start to show signs of aging. Only members of the regional dragon-type training clans really knew the answer to that question, she would probably need to talk to Lance about that if she wanted an actual answer to how long certain dragon-type species lived.

* * *

Once Ash had finished cleaning up his room, Vali returned her pokemon and they headed to the Oak residence around lunch time. She made a mental note to get her Houndour egg from him since she hadn't wanted to bring it near the school. She didn't trust the kids outside of Ash and Gary to not accidentally do something to harm it. Gary greeted the at the door, "Vali!"

"Hey, Gary," Vali took the hug with a smile, "Eager to watch the battle?"

"Yup!" Garry grinned at her, "It's going to be awesome!"

Humming lightly, Vali moved them out of the door way to let Ash, Steven, and Delia inside, "We're going to make and eat lunch before then."

"Are you going to make brownies, Vali?" Gary asked her with pleading eyes, "It's been so long since I've had any,"

Vali thought about it before shrugging, "So long as Professor Oak doesn't mind and we have the ingredients, I don't see why not."

"I don't mind at all," Professor Oak said as he walked up behind Gary, "Gary isn't the only one who's been craving some,"

Vali rolled her eyes before looking at Delia as she began taking off her boots, "Boys, we will be in the kitchen getting lunch and desert ready."

"Ash, Gary," Vali gave the two a serious look, "It's time to give Steven a crash course in the wonders of snow ball fights,"

"On it!" The two saluted her.

"Don't forget your winter clothes, Gary!" Professor Oak called out as the two boys dragged Steven out of the house, "Those two," He shook his head with a soft chuckle before looking at Vali as she took off her coat and gloves, "Vali, are you going to be taking your Houndour egg home today?"

Vali nodded as they headed for the kitchen, "Yes, thank you again for looking after it. I just didn't want those kids from the school to accidentally hurt it somehow."

"I understand, Vali. I've been getting reports from the various teachers about their students and some of them just don't sit right with me," Professor Oak frowned a bit, "I plan on investigating those reports, but getting the time to do so is difficult,"

Vali began pulling out her ingredients for the brownies while Delia got the stuff out to make lunch, "Professor, maybe you could use that pokemon summer camp idea you talked about before? The League is always trying to find ways to prevent pokemon abuse from happening, so you could contact them about sending some of their Ace trainers and psychic-type pokemon to help monitor the kids. It could be a training exercise for the recruits or something," She began mixing together her ingredients after preheating the oven, "They might actually find some kids that could be potential Ace trainers too."

Professor Oak and Delia were quiet for a few moments before the man said, "That could work, the League would probably like it since it'd give them another way to test the new Ace trainers. The Rangers might get in on it too. Perhaps I should speak to my fellow Professors about it..."

Vali and Delia watched Professor Oak mumble to himself as he produced a notebook and pen. She looked at Delia and the elder woman shook her head, "Let's leave him be for now," Delia looked at her with a proud smile, "That was a very good idea, Vali."

Flushing a bit a the compliment, Vali shrugged and turned back to the brownies she was making, "It was an idea I had for awhile now since I know Gary and Ash need something to do in the summer that includes human interaction."

* * *

Lunch was being served when a knock sounded at the door, Vali went to go answer it and found Daisy Oak standing there. Daisy smiled awkwardly at the witch, "Hey, Vali."

"Hey, Daisy," Vali moved aside to allow the elder girl inside, "We're about to sit down for lunch before I battle Professor Oak,"

"Right," Daisy shook herself lightly, "Vali, thanks for telling-"

"Ash was the one to notice it," Vali gave the eldest Oak sibling a bland look, "Daisy, I don't want to fight with you, but please remember that your baby brother needs you," Turning from the brown haired girl, she called out, "Gary! Come here a moment,"

Gary walked out, "Yeah, V-Daisy?!"

Vali left Gary to his elder sister and returned to the kitchen. Professor Oak nodded to her as he moved to greet his eldest grandchild. She took her seat next to Steven as he asked, "Everything okay?"

Vali offered him a strained smile that probably looked more like a grimace, "Yup. Peachy."

"Vali," Delia gave the fire-type master-in-training a look.

"I'll be fine," Vali pushed down the darker emotions that had surged through her upon seeing Daisy Oak.

Vali had known she was irritated with the eldest Oak sibling, but actually seeing Daisy actually made her angry. It wasn't hard to guess why she was angry. Dismissing a family member like Daisy had, it reminded her of the Dursleys. While she knew that Daisy was nothing like those animals, it didn't change the fact that the elder girl had pretty much been ignoring her brother. It was the same feeling she'd had towards Ron and Hermione when the two rarely owled home. Hermione got a small pass since the girl's parents were non-magicals, but Ron didn't have that excuse. Even Ginny, the twins, and Percy wrote their parents letters more than once in a blue moon, she just couldn't understand why someone would ignore a member of their family when there was actual love and care present.

Forcing herself to calm that anger, Vali reminded herself that it was Christmas and getting into fights with people was frowned on especially when they'd finally returned home for the first time in a while. She dug into her lunch when the Oak's returned after Steven was introduced. Ash and Gary kept up a conversation with Daisy allowing the witch to calm herself down. She listened with half an ear before focusing on Daisy when the elder girl said, "I'm actually going to be competing in the Grand Festival this year."

"Does that start in two months?" Vali asked her as she tried in vain to remember the weird schedule Coordinators used.

Pokemon Contests were weird especially since it was encouraged to dress up your pokemon in some of them. While Vali did admit to respecting those pokemon trainers that chose to be Coordinators because of their ability to turn attacks into something beautiful rather than devastating, she found the whole dressing up part and not battling by League rules weird. Pokemon Contests occurred all year long, but their Grand Festivals had an even odder schedule than the Kanto/Johto League Conferences which tended to overlap each other to the point you could probably participate in both if the League allowed for it. Even the Gym Leaders took a month off after the League Conferences to recover from the rush for last minute gym badges and to change out their weaker teams if they needed to, Coordinators and all those involved in Pokemon Contests didn't seem to take a break especially the announcers.

Daisy nodded with a grin, "Yup! I can't wait since I'm pretty sure we're going to win this year for sure."

"Hey, Vali?" Ash called for her attention and she looked at him, "How come you're not a Coordinator?"

"Ash, I respect them for being able to turn attacks into something beautiful and artsy especially when you get to the higher levels," Vali tried to figure out a way to put it without insulting Daisy before giving it up as a lost cause, "It's too weird for me to consider as a profession right now,"

"Coordinators aren't weird!" Daisy denied immediately.

Vali pinned her with a look, "They like dressing up their pokemon with weird themes and battle using non-League rules. Do I need to speak about the weird antics they get up to?"

"Some people might be like that, but I'm not," Daisy protested with a slight wince.

Vali shrugged lightly, "So it hasn't infected your brain yet, you're probably going to end up weird too after the Grand Festival."

"It's call a facade. Every experienced Coordinator ends up with one," Daisy sniffed at her.

"Weird," Vali countered before looking at Ash while ignoring Steven's shaking shoulders having a feeling he was silently laughing at the conversation, "Ash, I'm odd enough as it is. Being a Coordinator would make me odder, I don't really care for all that showy stuff though I will admit that playing around with pokemon attacks and turning them into art is pretty cool,"

"Is it possible to be both a Coordinator and a Gym Battler?" Ash asked her curiously.

Vali thought about it carefully, "Yes, but it be a very stressful thing to do especially for the pokemon involved since they'd have to switch up their styles a bit in order to either make them pretty or make them devastating."

"One of the trainers that I battled during my last Conference was one," Steven commented earning a few curious looks, "Wallace mentioned that it was difficult for both his pokemon and him especially at first. If he'd actually focused on the gym battling aspect, I probably wouldn't have made it into the top sixteen much less the top eight,"

"Coordinators and Gym Battlers have diffrent mindsets," Professor Oak spoke up, "It takes someone with a very liquid mindset to be able to do both,"

"Liquid? Like water?" Ash asked with a confused expression.

Vali shook her head, "I think the Professor means that their minds can shift into diffrent gears like how someone driving a car switches from driving forward to driving backward."

Ash gained an expression of understand, "So most people can't do it?"

"No, but those that do tend to go far," Professor Oak replied as Vali took a bite of the pasta she was eating.

"So if I tried to do both, it might help me to become a pokemon master?" Ash asked with wide eyes.

"Yes, Ash, but you'll have to work a lot harder than most trainers," Professor Oak warned him.

Ash grinned at the Professor, "Working harder than everyone else is what a pokemon master does."

* * *

After lunch was done, they headed to the lab where everything was set up for the battles that would be going on and the healing that would need to happen afterward. Professor Oak led them to the battlefield that had been set up, "Here we are, Vali, please send out Balto. Steven, would you care to have your Metagross' provide a barrier for us?"

"Of course, Professor," Steven said as he called out his two Metagross and his Claydol.

Vali called out Balto who barked and shivered in excitement when he saw the battlefield. Smiling, she bent down to rub between his ears as Professor Oak released a sharp whistle. Arcanine raced up from the depths of the snow covered Corral and slid to a stop before Professor Oak. She spoke to Balto who was looking at his sire with assessing eyes, "Okay, Balto. Professor Oak and I agreed to give you two your heads for this battle. Show your sire just how far you've come with me," Balto let out a howl of determination and she hugged him, "Good luck, Balto."

Balto licked her cheek earning a soft laugh as Vali let go of him. She rubbed at the spit coating her cheek and Balto raced onto the battlefield. Arcanine nodded to her before joining his pup. Professor Oak spoke as Steven's pokemon moved around the battlefield with Alakazam joining them moments later, "This is a one on one battle between Arcanine and Balto! Do your best the both of you."

Balto got into a ready position as Arcanine did the same. The two looked at one another with narrowed eyes. Ash looked between the two pokemon in confusion, "Why aren't they battling?"

"They're waiting for a signal of some sort," Vali explained as she released her other pokemon to watch the battle.

Vali grabbed Pippin as Smaug did the same with Empress to keep the two from trying to get involved in the battle. Idril and Terra cuddled close to Smaug for warmth with Arwen settling down beside them. Pele followed Arwen's example after a moment making that area devoid of any lingering snow due to her body heat. Eevee settled himself on her shoulders and focused on the battlefield as Balto suddenly Ember. Arcanine let the flaming projectiles hit him and absorbed the fire-type attack with a faint shimmer to his fur. Arcanine retaliated with an Ember of his own and Balto took the attack. This continued for a few moments, Gary gasped softly, "They're communicating."

"Arcanine is getting an understanding of Balto's strength and his will. Balto is getting a better understanding of his sire's power," Vali explained as she watched the exchange, "It's something done in multiple fire-type species though it is mostly seen in the Growlithe-line. Mostly during times like this or when they're looking for a mate,"

* * *

Balto cut off his Ember assault and dug into the ground once he'd gotten the information he wanted. Sire was strong, a lot stronger than him though that wasn't surprising. He had only lived a little over half a decade compared to Sire who'd seen at least four decades. Despite the fact he was no longer in his prime, Sire still held enough strength to dominate any who challenged him. He wasn't going to win this battle against Sire, but that wasn't the point. The point of this was to show Sire that he was ready for evolution and the responsibilities that came with leading his pack. While he would one day beat Sire, it was not today.

Bursting out of the ground behind Sire, Balto aimed a Bite to Sire's flank only for the Arcanine to catch him. Powerful jaws clamped around his body making him growl in pain, he began to hit Sire with Iron Tail before being flung away when the Arcanine got annoyed. Sire launched a Flamethrower at him and he allowed it to hit him. The knowledge for the move that he'd been missing finally sank into him and he launched one of his own towards Sire after gathering up the power to do so. Sire let out a pleased bark before darting forward aiming a crackling maw filled at him. Diving back underground to avoid the bite, he cooked up another plan.

Creating copies of himself, Balto left the underground and began to race around Sire. Using Flame Wheel to help confuse Sire, he charged up an Iron Tail to add onto the damage his attack would do. Sire stumbled when he slammed into the Arcanine with more force than usual thanks to his Iron Tail. Using the surprise, he bit down with Bite and used Iron Tail as quickly as he could before being shook off. The Take Down Sire used hurt both from being slammed into by something that weighed a lot more than him and flying through the air to slam into the ground. Forcing himself up and shaking off the damage, he created more copies of himself before disappearing into the safety of the ground.

Balto was proud that he'd managed to surprise Sire enough to stumble giving him time to do more damage, but he knew that the Arcanine likely wouldn't fall for it again. What should he do now? Hit and run tactics would only work for so long with Sire. Protect would probably end up crushed by Sire without much of a problem. Sunny Day would help both of them especially if they used Morning Sun. Calming himself, he knew panicking over this wouldn't help him. Vali would have him keep having his copies providing a smoke-screen and taking pot-shots. While Sire would figure it out and eventually cause more damage to him, he could use that damage via Reversal. Not to mention, Sire would probably end up using more fire-type attacks allowing him to have a base for learning them. Any attacks he learned could be perfected after evolution, he just needed to learn as many as possible during the battle.

Creating more copies of himself, Balto left the underground and began attacking his sire again.

* * *

Vali watched her eldest partner be pushed to the limit by his sire. She glanced at Daisy as the eldest Oak grandchild commented, "Balto's a lot stronger."

Humming lightly, Vali refocused on the battle with a pleased smile, "I know."

"I didn't know Balto could use Flamethrower," Steven looked at her in surprise, "I mean his Ember was starting to change, but not enough to be classified as Flamethrower,"

Vali shrugged lightly, "He didn't know how to use Flamethrower before the battle."

"But then how is able to use it now?" Daisy asked with confusion written on her face.

A thought occurred to Vali which made a grin spread across her lips, "The fire," She ignored the confused looks being shot towards her, "Balto is using the fire his sire sends towards him via attacks for to either patch together how to use said attack or create a base to learn it."

"Like how Pichu learn electric attacks from their parents in the wild," Professor Oak said looking at the battle with even more interest, "One of my fellow Professors mentioned something of this nature before, but I hadn't put much stock into it at the time due to my research,"

Vali grinned as Ash shouted, "Balto is awesome!"

"Yes, yes he is," Vali looked at her eldest partner with pride.

* * *

Balto stumbled back as the Heat Wave Sire sent at him and panted heavily as sweat coated his body. He was starting to lag even with the boosts Sire gave him whenever he sent fire-type attacks towards him. The pain in his right foreleg where Sire had caught him with Bite was getting worse. The worst damage was from the Take Downs he'd taken. Even when he'd used Morning Sun, it hadn't healed much damage. Sire was barely showing any signs of the match other than the few injuries he'd managed to inflict. He looked at Vali who was watching him with pride and worry. Making a decision, he turned to Sire and barked out that he was done battling and why.

* * *

"Why is Balto barking rather than continuing to battle?" Gary asked with confusion written across his face.

Vali smiled as she said, "Because the battle is over," Ash and Gary just continued to look at her in confusion, "Rather than continue to battle and sustain more injuries that would prevent him from protecting his pack if they needed it, Balto is ending the battle to ensure he has the strength to protect his pack just in case. It actually shows that Balto is a good alpha as he understands when to stop fighting."

"Which is why Arcanine wanted to battle Balto in the first place," Professor Oak added causing the two children in the group to focus their confusion on him, "Arcanine is ensuring that his pup has the knowledge and good sense alpha's need to lead their pack before evolving,"

"But isn't Smaug your starter?" Daisy cut in with a frown.

Vali nodded as she set Pippin down, "He is my starter, but Balto is my oldest partner which makes him the leader simply by being around me the longest. If Smaug wanted to, he could've challenged Balto for leadership after evolving, but chose not to," She looked at Smaug, "You're happy letting Balto be the leader, aren't you?" Smaug nodded before spitting out an ember, "So Balto is the alpha and my second in command when it comes to the hierarchy in our family."

"He'll probably become the father figure of your baby pokemon when they hatch," Delia said as Arcanine gave a loud howl.

Everyone focused back on the battlefield where Balto and Arcanine were standing together. Balto joined his Sire in howling. When they stopped, Arcanine bent down his head to grab Balto by the scruff and bring him over to them. Vali took Balto from Arcanine, "I assume this means you approve?"

Arcanine nodded before turning to Professor Oak. Nudging his partner in the chest, Arcanine let out a happy groan when Professor Oak scratched behind his ears. Looking down at her partner, Vali told him, "I'm proud of you, Balto."

Balto licked her cheek with a soft woof. Vali looked at Professor Oak as he said, "Vali, I think Arcanine wants to take Balto under his wing for a few days."

"Do you want to do that?" Vali asked Balto earning a nod and slight wag of his tail, "Alright. When you're done, I'll evolve you,"

"Let's get him healed up then," Professor Oak said prompting Vali to return her pokemon and head into the lab.

* * *

"So we won't get to see Balto evolve yet?" Ash asked with a small pout.

"Sorry, Ash," Vali sat down with Pikachu in her lap, "You'll get to see Pikachu evolve today though,"

Ash and Gary both regained their excitement at those words. Pikachu backed into her stomach as the boys looked at him with eager eyes. Daisy shook her head with a small laugh as Steven chuckled a bit at their antics. Vali scratched behind Pikachu's ears as Gary asked, "Do you have a Thunder stone?"

"In my bag," Vali patted the small messenger bag that Delia didn't mind lending her for the day.

It contained the case with Vali's evolutionary items which would stay in the bag and out of the two children's hands for as long as she could help it. The incubator with her Vulpix egg was currently settled in the seat beside her. The tiny twitches and small jumps of the egg left the fire-type master-in-training overjoyed. Eevee was currently settled beside it and giving anyone that walked near it a dark look. She reached out to scratch behind his ears as Daisy asked, "Vali, what are you going to evolve Eevee into?"

Eevee, Vali, and Pikachu all stiffened at the question before the two pokemon began throwing dark looks at the eldest Oak grandchild. Calming the two down while inwardly struggling with the burst of irrational anger that surged through her at that question, she bit out, "I am not going to take that choice from Eevee. After everything he's been through, he deserves to decide. If he doesn't wish to evolve, I will find an Ever Stone for him."

Daisy seemed to understand that she had asked a bad question. Nodding, the eldest Oak grandchild fell silent. Delia walked into the small lounge room they were waiting in for Professor Oak to get done fixing up Balto, "I've got hot chocolate, brownies, and Christmas cookies!"

Tension dissipated though neither of her pokemon stopped glaring at Daisy, Vali took her mug of hot-chocolate and grabbed two Christmas cookies. She also took two brownies. Breaking a cookie and a brownie in half, she gave them to her pokemon. Pikachu immediately cheered up and began eating them while Eevee eyed the offered sweets with some confusion. She ate her Christmas cookie and held up Eevee's piece. Eevee eyed it for a moment before taking a small bite. Immediatly his eyes widened before he gently snatched the cookie from her to eat it, she smiled warmly down at him. The sound of a camera going off causing her to look up and she found Steven holding her camera, "I thought you might like a picture."

"Thank you," Vali told him before turning back to Eevee who'd finished his cookie, "Try this, it's a brownie,"

Eevee sniffed the bit of chocolate heaven and took a tentative bite. Vali watched as his eyes closed with a blissful expression and his tail wagged a bit. She heard another snap from her camera, but ignored it as she gently rubbed behind Eevee's ears. Eevee finished off his piece of brownie before giving her brownie a look. With a soft laugh, she pulled off half of it and handed it over before she ate her half. Delia made a cooing sound, "Oh, so cute."

"Taste good huh?" Vali asked Eevee earning a tentative nod, "I'm glad you like them, Eevee,"

* * *

When Professor Oak finished healing up Balto, they left the lounge to go outside again. While evolutions could happen inside, it was advised for them to occur outside especially when it was an electric-type evolving as they tended to short out any nearby electronics via a power surge. All electronics were left inside save for the pokedex's which were specifically shielded against such things. Vali took out her case of evolutionary items as her pokemon were released to watch the coming evolution of Pikachu. Taking out the Thunder stone after making sure her gloves were in place, she closed the case and put it back into the bag. Picking up the energy filled stone, she approached Pikachu and set the stone down in front of him, "Pikachu, I'm proud of you. While I will miss you being a Pikachu, I am happy to help you become a Raichu and reach whatever new goal you have after that point."

Pikachu looked at Vali with a warm expression before touching the stone with coo. Light erupted through the area as Pikachu began to evolve, the scent of electricity burned through the air as the hair on the back of her neck rose up. She covered her eyes as Ash and Gary shouted in excitement. When the light died down, she waited a second before uncovering her eyes. When she did, a gasp left left her as Ash shouted, "That isn't a Raichu."

Vali looked at the pokemon Pikachu had turned into with a sense of shock and awe running through her. He looked like kind of like a regular Raichu only a lot diffrent. The dark orange fur had been replaced with a lighter browner fur and the features more rounded. The eyes were a deep sky blue with yellow circles at the bottom. The large ears were almost completely yellow with a spire more towards the base of the ear and brown on the inside. The ears were thicker than a regular Raichu and less pointed. The paws were white just like his belly only with bright yellow near the edge. The stripes on his back have also turned white, and there is a small, white circular marking on each heel. The lightning bolt-shaped tip of his tail has rounded edges. Moving towards the newly evolved pokemon, she murmured, "P-Pikachu?"

The newly evolved pokemon nodded lightly before looking at his body in shock. Vali looked at Professor Oak as he almost shouted, "An Alolan Raichu!"

"Alolan Raichu, Professor?" Vali asked him in confusion, "I've heard of an Alolan Vulpix and Ninetales, but not a Raichu,"

"I'm not surprised since you were more focused on learning about fire-types than anything else," Professor Oak said causing Vali to blush, "Let's head inside and I'll explain,"

Vali nodded as she returned her pokemon again save for Eevee, Balto, and her apparent Alolan Raichu. She wasn't the only one to look at Alolan Raichu in shock when he started to levitate and use his tail as a surf board. Ash shouted, "Awesome!"

They quickly got settled in the lounge and Professor Oak started to explain what an Alolan Raichu was, "Alolan Raichu are a duel-type pokemon. They're both electric and psychic-types though no one is quite sure why they evolved like that. We do have a theory that it's due to a change in its diet, but we can't really prove that."

"So how is it possible for Pikachu to have become an Alolan Raichu?" Vali asked as she hugged the newly evolved pokemon, "Not that it isn't cool and I'd love him no matter what, but how is it possible?"

"I had my theory that Pikachu came from Alola due to his Electric Terrain which is rarely seen in a member of the Pichu-line outside of Alola," Professor Oak replied as he looked at her newly evolved Raichu with a sad expression, "I believe that Pikachu was once a pokemon that belonged to one of those trainers that came from Alola and was abandoned,"

"Abandoned?" Vali looked at Raichu, "W-were you abandoned?" Raichu nodded with a sad expression, "Oh, Raichu, no wonder you didn't want a trainer in the beginning," She hugged him being careful not to press to hard on his newly evolved body, "I'm so sorry you had to go through that, but I'm glad it meant we'd get to meet,"

Raichu nuzzled her with a soft coo. Professor Oak spoke up after a few moments, "Vali, I will have Alakazam take him under her wing so to speak. It'll cut out a lot of problems he'll have with his new powers."

"Alright," Vali looked at Raichu with a small smile, "Now, I do believe a certain pokemon said he wanted a nickname after evolving. Shall we find one?"

Raichu nodded and they began going through various names for him before settling on Elrond. Vali looked at Professor Oak when Gary asked, "Gramps, does this mean he'll be able to talk to people telepathically?"

Professor Oak shrugged, "I'm not quite sure. I'll have to talk to Cousin Samson, but it should be possible with at least Vali."

Vali perked up at that and looked at Elrond with a grin, "I hope it's possible. It'd be nice to be able to get a better understanding of my pokemon," Elrond grinned at her and nodded, "Professor, would you have your cousin send all the information he has on Alolan Raichu and can you import it into my pokedex?"

"Of course, I'll speak to him as soon as possible," Professor Oak agreed earning a sigh of relief from Vali, "Now, I think it's time that Elrond is checked over,"

* * *

Other than the usual problems with control and balance that were normal for newly evolved pokemon, Elrond was prone to headaches due to his new psychic-typing. With Alakazam's help, the problem should be solved once he got more control. He also needed more fruits and berries added to his diet which meant stocking up on dried fruits whenever Vali went shopping for supplies. Other than all that, Elrond was healthier than most newly evolved pokemon which wasn't surprising considering the events leading up to his evolution.

* * *

Two days after Elrond evolved saw the League sponsored Pokemon Psychologist arriving. Eevee didn't like the idea of meeting the man, but tolerated it so long as Vali was there as well. The Psychologist, Brian Grace, and his Alakazam partner didn't mind her presence. She kept Eevee calm through the entire process and answered any questions Brian had for her. Thanks to the fact she had been keeping a journal about Eevee, Brian didn't have to ask too many questions. By the end of it, Brian told her, "I believe Eevee is recovering rather well all things considered. I'll be giving a report to the League, but I believe Eevee will be staying in your custody. Please contact me if you have any questions."

Brian gifted her his business number before going to talk to Professor Oak. Vali looked down at Eevee who was glaring after Brian, "That wasn't too bad, was it?" Eevee looked at her before snorting softly and shaking himself, "At least he wasn't one of those creepy guys that kept asking how things make you feel," Eevee rolled his eyes at her attempted joke before looking towards the window, "Want to go outside for a bit until he leaves?"

Eevee nodded and they left the room. Exiting the lab into the snow which was starting to pack a bit thickly onto the ground, Vali walked towards her favorite place at the lab. She dusted off wide area of the fence and pulled herself onto it. Eevee looked around the area a bit curiously, "This is my favorite area in the whole lab during winter, just wait a few seconds and you'll find out why."

Like clock-work, the entire population of fire-types in Professor Oak's care that were currently in the corral released their most powerful fire-type attacks to get rid of the snow and heat up the ground. When it was done, the area was nice and warm. Eevee looked at the fire-types that began wandering around in curiosity, "They do that every hour during winter when they're outside. They keep the area warm enough for their tastes," She pointed to a few Oddish make their way to the area, "The pokemon who don't like the cold too much, but need sunlight to survive properly tend to congregate to this area. I like coming out here because it lets me see the various pokemon in Professor Oak's care without me intruding on them."

* * *

Out of all Professor Oak's pokemon, Charizard had always been the most startling of the group even more so than Dragonite. Battle scars riddled his burnt orange scales, the dark sapphire blue wing membranes were torn in some places and heavily scarred in others. One of his horns was shorter than the other and he was missing one of his front fangs. Heat leaked off his body, the snow around him turned into mist. He landed beside Professor Oak with a soft thump sending what snow wasn't instantly turned into mist flying. Smaug covered Vali with a wing to keep her from being hit by the snow and growled at Charizard as he withdrew his wing. Charizard snorted at him before looking at Professor Oak as his trainer said, "Charizard, you may test Smaug, but do no mutilation or death. He's Vali's pokemon."

Charizard looked at Vali for a few moments before dipping his head. Smaug growled and moved to stand in front of her as if to shield his trainer from the older Charizard's gaze. Charizard let out a low growl and snapped a bit at Smaug in response. Moving forward, Vali touched Smaug's back earning a glance from him, "Do your best, Smaug."

Smaug nodded to her before moving to the battlefield as Charizard did the same. Professor Oak raised his hand before lowering it, "Begin!"

The two Charizard's shot into the air and disappeared into the cloud line. Fire lit up the sky, Vali tried to see through the thick clouds, but could only see shadows of the two pokemon that disappeared when the fire went out, "Professor, How is this going to go?"

"Smaug will lose, but you already knew that," Professor Oak glanced at her and she nodded slowly, "He'll be pushed to his limit, but I think he might impress Charizard which will be in his favor," Professor Oak looked back at the sky as Smaug burst through the cloud line in an uncontrolled fall towards the ground, "He'll probably need a few days in my care to recover properly. Despite the natural arrogance in the Charizard species as a whole, Smaug didn't immediately attempt to attack or bellow out a challenge upon arrival which shows he respects that this isn't his territory which is going to work in his favor as well as the fact that he is your pokemon,"

Smaug managed to keep himself from hitting the ground and shot back into the air. He released a powerful Flamethrower that Charizard just pushed right through to wrap his claws around Smaug's muzzle. He slammed a Thunder Punch into Smaug's stomach before hitting Smaug with an Iron Tail. Smaug was sent flying towards the ground again. He barely managed to catch himself and skimmed the ground a bit as he pulled back up . Rather than rush back again, Smaug eyed Charizard for a few moments before using Smokescreen. Pulling her scarf up over her mouth and nose, Vali put on her goggles and watched as Charizard blew away the black smoke from the Smokescreen with a Wing Attack only to find Smaug missing.

Looking around for her starter, Vali found him flying into clouds. Charizard looked up when Smaug roared and quickly shot up into the clouds. She grinned a bit, "You know, I didn't think Smaug would be able to use my favored fighting style with his evolution, but he proved me wrong."

"You still have a long way to go though," Professor Oak commented earning a small hum.

"But it'll be worth it since I'll be able to surprise my opponents by using a style that is generally only seen with bug, dark, and poison-type pokemon," Vali watched as more flames lit up the sky, "It's going to be fun figuring out how Empress and Terra will be able to use that fighting style considering how large their evolved forms will be. I might actually have to change up my style with them, but I don't exactly mind the challenge especially if I can have some of my other pokemon be able to fight two diffrent ways," The two Charizard appeared below the cloud-line grappling together, "But my whole thing is about surprising and infuriating my opponents, it'll be funny see how they react to a tank rather than a speedy little pokemon that does hit and run attacks,"

"You're progress as a trainer will definitely be interesting, Vali," Professor Oak mused with a chuckle, "I look forward to see just what you come up with,"

Charizard managed to get Smaug into position for a Seismic Toss. Vali winced when Smaug hit the ground with a loud crash creating big crater beneath him. Smaug pushed himself up with a growl and flexed his wings wincing a bit when his right one moved. He sent a Flamethrower towards Charizard before using Smokescreen while the elder of the two dodged. When the smoke cleared, Smaug had returned to the air and was moving far more slowly trying to keep from using his right wing too much. He unleashed a Dragon Pulse which impacted Charizard's stomach sending the elder of the two flying backwards a bit. Charizard growled and unleashed a Dragon Pulse of his own that Smaug barely managed to get fully hit by. The attack still managed to hit the edge of Smaug's right wing causing the younger of the two to fall to the ground. Smaug landed heavily and looked at the lower part of his bleeding wing before growling as he looked up at the elder. Tucking his wing close to his body, he sent a Dragon Breath towards the elder.

Charizard dodged the attack and came at Smaug with another Thunder Punch. Without the maneuverability being in the air provided him, Smaug had a harder time getting out of the way. When Charizard reached him, Smaug used Toxic causing the Thunder Punch to fail as Charizard gagged on the poisonous liquid that had managed to get into his mouth. Smaug used that time to use his Dual Claws and Metal Claw. Charizard pulled away from the younger of the two and eyed him with amusement. Charizard grunted and growled at Smaug before taking off into the air. Vali looked at the receding figure in surprise, "Professor, I thought he'd continue the match."

"Based on his actions, I believe he's gotten his measure of Smaug and doesn't feel the need to continue fighting at the moment," Professor Oak replied as he walked towards Smaug, "I also believe that he stopped the fight because Smaug wouldn't be able to fly and thus would not be as much fun to battle. I wouldn't be surprised if Charizard decides to use the time Smaug is here to ambush him whenever possible,"

"Why?" Vali rushed over to Smaug, "Smaug, you did a good job," Smaug grunted and gave his wing a pointed look, "We just need to work on getting better at controlled falls and evading attacks,"

Smaug spat out a few embers, but stayed still when Professor Oak began to examine his wing. Professor Oak spoke as he looked over the delicate membranes of Smaug's injured wing, "I believe that Smaug impressed Charizard enough to want to train him in someway without being obvious about it," Smaug let out a growl though Vali wasn't sure if it was from pain or he didn't like the idea of Charizard training him, "Whatever the reason, Charizard seems to like Smaug in somewhat otherwise he'd have knocked him unconscious before leaving. Now, we should get Smaug inside so I can tend to his wing."

* * *

Almost a week after his battle with Professor Oak's Arcanine, Balto was ready to evolve. While Ash and Gary were eager to watch the event, they understood that this was a moment that required silence. Placing the Fire Stone in front of Balto, Vali beamed at her first partner, "It's time, Balto. I'm so proud of you."

Balto barked and wagged his tail before seemingly taking a breath as he focused on the Fire Stone. He stared at it for a few moments before stepping forward and placing a paw on it. Fire surrounded Balto as he evolved, it burned brightly and expanded with Balto's evolving body. Everyone backed up a bit and covered their eyes in an attempt to shield them from the flames, Vali was almost reluctant to do so. Warmth seemed to run through her body, a hum echoed through her mind as the magic within her veins thrummed almost violently. What shocked her from moving towards the flames was what she felt in side of them, Balto's inner flame growing stronger as the energy from the Fire Stone changed his body.

When the fire and a majority of the heat dissipated, she uncovered her eyes and found a majestic Arcanine standing in the place of a Growlithe. Balto opened his eyes with a shake of his head and focused immediately on Vali. He walked slowly towards her and she moved to meet him in the middle. She raised her hand and Balto bowed his head to bump his nose against it. She giggled softly as she wrapped her arms around his much bigger neck and felt the sheer heat radiating off of him, "You look amazing Balto."

Balto let out a low rumbling sound as he leaned slightly into Vali. She pulled back after a few moments as Gary and Ash both shouted, "Awesome!"

* * *

Vali was watching her Vulpix egg like a hawk with her other pokemon though they were staying near the edge of the room. The egg had quit it's increasingly vigorous movements not long after breakfast two days after the last demonstration at Ash and Gary's school. Ash had been disappointed that he needed to go to school rather than watch the egg hatch, but had been told that the egg might not hatch until after he came home from school leading the boy to regain his excitement. No doubt, Gary and Ash would be rushing to the Ketchum-Black-Potter residence after school alongside a few of their classmates. Delia had given Vali their video camera and the fire-type master-in-training would start recording it the moment the egg began hatching. All the supplies they needed for the hatching were ready and waiting. As soon as she heard the first crack, she started the recording and got into position.

The egg shook and rolled slightly as soft cracking sounds echoed through the air. Vali and her pokemon offered soft sounds of encouragement. Even Empress and Eevee were trying to encourage the newest member of their family, everyone was eager to meet the baby pokemon that would soon be born. The first thing she saw as the egg began to crack open was a paw. Slowly, the cracking sounds grew louder as the baby Vulpix fought his way to be born. Small pieces of egg shell fell to the carpeted floor, she was definitely going to save a few pieces to commemorate the moment other than the video. Finally, the biggest parts of the egg began to crack open and fall apart.

The baby Vulpix shook off the piece of egg shell on his head and rubbed at his membrane covered eyes. Smiling softly, Vali took one of the towels being kept hot by her fire-type pokemon and helped clean off the slimy film covering his eyes. He jerked a bit before leaning into the touch as she gently and carefully got rid of what was covering his eyes. When she finished, he opened his deep chocolate brown pupil-less eyes for the first time and locked them with hers. She spoke in a soft voice, "Welcome to the family, Little One."

Vulpix tilted his head a bit probably attempting to figure out what she'd said. She began cleaning him off and introduced each member of their family. Balto, Smaug, Arwen, and Pele all breathed a few embers towards him upon meeting. After feeding him, Vulpix quickly fell asleep from his rather tiring hatching. Vali placed him on Balto's side knowing that keeping him warm was definitely needed considering how much smaller he was compared to other newly born Vulpix. The single almost blindingly white tail curled around his body as all her other pokemon began to curl up around Balto to either take a nap or just be close to their newest family member. Ending the recording and taking a picture of everyone, she left the room for a moment to tell Delia and Steven that Vulpix had hatched.

Delia promised to tell Professor Oak for Vali and she headed back to her room to clean up everything.

* * *

Vulpix were normally around 10.9 pounds and a 1.5 ft tall at birth usually taking about six months to reach full size. Vali's Vulpix was 5 pounds and barely 1 ft tall. Professor Oak quickly set Vulpix up with a diet that would help him grow and make up for the fact he was a runt. Other than that, Vulpix was perfectly healthy thanks to how careful Vali had been with his egg. The constant check ups with Nurse Joys had ensured that he would be born healthy despite the usual problems that came with runts. Which was a relief for Vali, she would be doing the same thing with her Houndour egg which would take at least three months to hatch.

Ash and Gary were both mildly disappointed to find out that Vulpix tended to spend more time asleep than awake which was normal for baby mammalian pokemon outside of electric-types who tended to spend about only 3 hours asleep when born unless outside of an electricity rich area. It took Vali and Delia both scolding them to keep from trying to wake Vulpix up to play. It wouldn't be for another week before Vulpix would actually be able to stay awake for most of the day. As it was, Vulpix tended to wake up his trainer almost every other hour during the night for food. Which had her wondering why she wanted to do it again with a baby Houndour, Vulpix made up for it by being an absolute cuddle bug and being adorable.

Idril tended to spend much of her time cuddled up with Vulpix when she had a chance. Celina and Balto took turns acting like a pillow for the vulpine pokemon. If Vulpix was fussy, Smaug tended to lay his head close to the tiny fox and let out croon that helped calm him down. Elrond kept Ash, Gary, and Pippin from getting too rough with Vulpix when the fox did feel like playing when he was awake. Terra, Pele, and Arwen often seemed confused about how to react to the tiny fox often spending their time just peering at him. Empress tended to surround Vulpix with pillows and seemed to be attempting to teach him how to talk. Whenever Smaug couldn't calm down Vulpix, Eevee would curl up as best he could around Vulpix and purr which always settled down the fox enough to cause him to purr back to the evolution pokemon.

* * *

Sirius returned the Ketchum-Black-Potter residence a little before breakfast. Vali discovered the fact when she stumbled into the kitchen and found the grim animagus drinking a cup of coffee with Regulus laying at his feet. She blinked at the sight of him as her tired mind struggled to make sense of what she was seeing. Delia gently pushed her into a seat with a mug of hot chocolate, "Breakfast will be ready soon, Vali."

Vali drank some of her hot chocolate after blowing at it for a few moments, "Welcome home, Siri."

"Thanks, Pup. Based on how you look, I'm guessing your Vulpix egg hatched?" Sirius asked her with a raised eyebrow.

"Four days ago," Vali answered yawning, "He's asleep right now, but you'll be able to meet him soon,"

"No nickname yet?" Regulus got up and moved over to greet Vali.

Vali scratched him behind his right horn earning a groan of pleasure from the hell-hound, "Not until after he starts battling, I want to be able to find a good name for him."

Regulus licked Vali's cheek when she stopped scratching him and rather than return to Sirius' side, he laid down beside her chair earning a mock pout from Sirius. Sirius shook his head, "I guess that makes sense. Has he been active much?"

"Sometimes, he didn't do more than sleep the first day which isn't surprising considering the fact he'd just spent a lot of energy hatching," Vali thanked Delia when the woman laid a plat filled to the brim with breakfast in front of her, "Everyone's been a big help with him though Terra, Pele, and Arwen seem to be unable to decide how to react to him,"

Vali spent the next while until Ash and Steven joined them talking about her team. Sirius had been surprised to hear that Smaug had gotten out of his battle with Charizard with just a few bruises, a bunch of cracked scales, and an injured wing. Hearing about Elrond's surprising evolution was even more surprising, the grim animagus actually ended up spraying the table with coffee when his goddaughter told him about it. Thankfully for the grim animagus, he hadn't had much coffee in his mouth and hadn't ruined much food. He was still scolded by Delia and made to clean up the mess.

* * *

All of her pokemon had quite a few diffrent opinions about the grim animagus. Empress and Eevee didn't like him. Pele just thought he was another funny looking human. Elrond tolerated him so long as he didn't try anything with Vulpix. Idril and Terra were hesitant about him. Arwen and Pippin liked the man especially since he was more than willing to play around. Balto liked him. Smaug ignored him. Celina looked at him in disdain until he complimented her feathers and said that he wished he'd had a flying-type partner. While Vulpix was still a bit too young to form an opinion, he sneezed and spit up on Sirius when the man held him while Vali was taking their picture. Needless to say, she spent much of the day working to keep Sirius from destroying the photo after he'd gotten cleaned up.

Regulus found a lot of joy in wrestling with Balto and racing his old friend. All her other pokemon were treated with a mild amount of interest. He tended to ignore them unless it was Vulpix who he avoided like the plague since he didn't like baby pokemon. He and Elrond seemed to dislike each other with the Alolan Raichu doing his best to avoid the Houndoom. Psychic-type pokemon had a hard time getting along with dark-types unless raised to get along. Same with ghost-types actually, it was going to be interesting when Vali finally got a ghost-type and her Houndour egg hatched.

Professor Oak used the fact that Sirius was finally home to go through multiple experiments with the two magic users using the stones that Vali and Steven found. Between the two, they were able to discover that the stones took on the color of the magic belonging to the user. While Vali's magic looked like fire, Sirius' magic was darted between grayish black and pale green with a bit of dark blue tossed in. From there, they discovered that elemental magic seemed to be amplified when the stones were in use. Vali's accidental fires were contained or put out by the various water-types around the lab. Sirius' main element seemed to deal with darkness. This prompted the Professor to theorize that it had to do with the pokemon they seemed to be at home with, Sirius mainly enjoyed spending time with dark-types, but also enjoyed being around electric and water-types to an extent.

When the testing of Vali's inner flame began, they were able to discover that fire-types seemed to flock towards her as if under a spell. Vali wasn't able to consciously use her inner flame no matter how much she tried. When she did pull her inner flame to the forefront, she wasn't able to use her magic at all. If she pulled her inner flame to the forefront and didn't let it recede, she'd pass out for anywhere between a few minutes to a few hours during which she'd be subjected to visions and seizures as her nose bleed heavily. If that happened, she would barely be able to move as all her energy seemed to have gone up in smoke. Professor Oak put a stop to that part of the experiment and warned her against attempting to try using it until they figured out what was happening. Considering just how bad she felt afterwards, she was all for it.

One of the good things that came from their experiments came with a deeper understanding of her fire-type pokemon. Even without being able to hear what they were actually saying, Vali was actually able to understand them to a degree it didn't matter. In return, they seemed to understand her on a deeper level as well. Professor Oak theorized that it was due to their inner flames bonding in someway. Balto and Smaug became even more protective over her. Pele actually seemed to understand things just a bit faster. Arwen's energy seemed even more controlled. Out of all her pokemon, Vulpix seemed to be affected the most out of all her pokemon. He absolutely refused to be separated from Vali for any reason and was inconsolable if she was out of eye-sight. When she told Professor Oak, the man told her it was likely due to the fact she was Vulpix's mother figure and how young he was.

* * *

Christmas Eve dawned with heavy snow fall and a Pallet Town Black Out, Steven was surprised by the sheer amount of snow on the ground. Sure, it had snowed quite a bit before, but not the amount that currently lay on the ground. He looked at Vali when she let out a soft laugh and took the steaming mug of hot-chocolate from her, "You though I was joking about how much snow we get sometimes, didn't you?"

"Just a bit," Steven looked at the still falling snow, "How much more will end up falling?"

"Not too sure, Dragonite and Charizard will likely go out to clear the clouds if it snows much more," Vali glanced at the thick clouds of snow as she bent down to pick up a shivering Vulpix who cuddled into her chest.

Vulpix snuggled into his mother figured chest with a low sigh. Steven glanced at Vulpix's still white tail, "How long will it take for his tail to darken?"

Vali shrugged a bit, "I'm not too sure. It's diffrent with every Vulpix especially when it comes to males and females," She drank from her cup of hot-chocolate, "Shouldn't be longer than a month though. Maybe another work or two before it starts to darken, I'm not too worried about it."

Vulpix glanced at him and let out a soft yip as he shifted to look fully at Steven. Steven reached out and gently ran his fingers across the downy soft fur of the little fox's right ear. Vali moved a bit closer to him and Vulpix leaned into the touch. They both looked to the side when they heard a soft click and found Daisy standing there with a camera. The eldest Oak grandchild grinned a bit, "I thought it would be nice to document the moment."

Vali rolled her eyes a bit before she eyed the camera, "Is that my camera?"

"Mine actually," Daisy said as she put it away, "I might not take many photo's, but I do keep a camera around just in case,"

Vali glanced at him, "I'm going to go see if Delia wants any help in the kitchen. I'll see you later, Steven."

"Sure," Steven watched her go with a little bit of confusion.

Daisy let out a groan as Vali disappeared deeper into the Oak residence, "Damn it, she's really angry at me."

Steven looked at her in surprise both at the fact that Vali was still angry at the other girl and the fact that she knew it, "How did you know?"

"Despite not being as close to her as my brother or Ash, I did grow up around her somewhat and I've seen her angry," Daisy ran a hand through her slightly short hair, "I really can't blame her for being mad at me even if she isn't completely sure why she's angry,"

"Why wouldn't she understand why she's angry?" Steven felt confusion run through him.

Daisy eyed him for a few moments before asking, "Just how much do you know about Vali's past before she arrived in this world?"

"Quite a bit," Steven narrowed his eyes at her.

Daisy smiled a bit, "So you know about her relationship with her relatives or at least some of it," Steven stiffened at the casual way Daisy said that and felt irritation at the lack of care she was showing towards Vali's past, "At least some of it from the way you're reacting," She rolled her eyes, "Don't give me that look or act like that, it's not that I don't care about Vali's past. I really do care since it fucked her over so badly," Steven relaxed a bit and noticed Eevee standing nearby behind Daisy listening in, "Vali doesn't like anyone bringing it up. Despite how she acts, it still affects her greatly."

"I'm aware," Steven tried to keep his cool, "But why bring it up?"

"The scars from her past run deep, Steven," Daisy smiled sadly, "With how I got so caught up in my journey and forgot about my little brother, she's probably remembering her relatives and how they treated her. Granted while I will never willingly do anything to my brother like what they did to her, I still seemed to ignore him," She looked at Steven with a regretful expression, "Somewhere in her mind, she's remembering the times when they ignored her whether it was seemingly forgetting about her presence in a room or acting like she didn't exist. That's where the anger is coming from, I don't think she'll ever fully forgive me for accidentally ignoring my brother,"

Steven understood where she was coming from and had to admit that it would explain why Vali was still angry with Daisy despite the eldest Oak grandchild apologizing to her little brother, "I understand where you're coming, but why did you not contact your brother?"

"I was going to contact him whenever I was in a town and actually managed it for the first few months," Daisy's eyes filled with guilt, "But as time went by, I got so absorbed in my travels and training my pokemon that it just slipped my mind. I'm actually jealous of Vali," She had a self-deprecating smile on her face, "She actually remembers to call home and doesn't let herself get too caught up in training,"

"She does get caught up in training," Steven retorted earning a look of surprise from Daisy, "Vali's pokemon are her family and she gets caught up in everything to do with them. Taking care of them and their needs always takes up most of the room in her mind, she would forget to eat or sleep if it weren't for either myself or her pokemon making sure she took care of herself,"

"That sounds like Vali," Daisy shook her head with a soft smile, "Thanks for taking care of her, Steven. All of us were worried about what would happen when she went on her journey,"

"There's no need to thank me," Steven protested the very thought, "Taking care of Vali isn't that hard and I'd do it anyway since she'd my friend,"

Daisy let out a giggle though Steven wasn't too sure why. She shook her head, "I'm going to go make sure the boys don't get into any trouble. See you later, Steven."

With that, Daisy disappeared deeper into the house. Steven watched her go and wondered what exactly had cause the girl to giggle.

* * *

Christmas morning dawned with Ash and Gary attempting to jump onto the bed in the room Vali usually used during visits to the Oak residence, they quickly found themselves being held in a psychic hold by a less than amused Elrond. Elrond gestured to where Vulpix was curled up on Vali's chest as was his preferred place to sleep and the two children had the decency to look sheepish. Vali watched the two with amusement, "Merry Christmas, you two."

"Merry Christmas, Vali," The two said as Elrond settled them onto the ground.

"Is anyone else up yet?" Vali carefully shifted Vulpix into her lap earning a whine of displeasure that tapered off when she began scratching behind his right ear.

"Steven is, but everyone else is still sleeping. Daisy's Lopunny kicked us out before we could wake her up," Gary answered with a slight grimace.

Vali checked the time and wasn't surprised to see that it was only 7 in the morning, "As it's only 7 in the morning, I'm not too surprised. How about you two help me make breakfast for everyone?" The two perked up at the mention of her making food, "Go get some stuff out for me."

The two raced from the room with Elrond following after them. Vulpix let out a sleepy yawn and looked up at her. She smiled down at him, "Time to wake up, Little One."

After checking on her Houndour egg, Vali left her guest room with Vulpix, Eevee, and Pippin as her other pokemon didn't feel like getting up just yet. She led the way into the kitchen where she gently set Vulpix down on a chair. Ash held up two cookie sheets, "Can we make cookies too?"

"No, but we will be making biscuits," Vali shushed Vulpix when he whined at her, "Don't worry, Little One. I'm not going to leave your sight, but I do need my hands free to make us some delicious food,"

As Vulpix was a week and a half old, he could now eat berry mush like Idril had back when Vali had first gotten her. He perked up at the thought of food and settled down once Eevee joined him on the chair. She began making breakfast with Gary and Ash acting as her enthusiastic helpers. Elrond and Steven, once he joined them, kept the children from making too big of a mess. Delia joined them as Vali pulled the monkey bread she'd made out of the oven, "Oh, Vali. You didn't have to cook."

"I wanted to," Vali swatted away Ash's hands when he went to reach for the pipping hot food, "I had to find something for Ash and Gary to do since they didn't seem like they'd be able to go back to bed,"

"Well, what do you need me to do?" Delia asked as she moved to wash her hands.

"I need some help making the pokemon food for everyone," Vali gestured to the binders containing the diets of every pokemon in the house based on who owned them.

* * *

Once Breakfast had been eaten after all members of the house hold joined them, they went about opening presents. The pokemon were either given some of their favorite berries or some new care kits that their trainers would hold onto. Vulpix was gifted a few toys that Vali would probably use for her Houndour whenever they finally hatched. Ash and Gary were given permission to open their presents. They mainly received either some new clothes or toys with Ash absolutely adoring the stuffed Pikachu doll that Steven had decided to give him. Both of them received a photo-album from Vali that contained copies of the pictures that the two liked a lot as well as pictures of them with the various pokemon dotting the room, the witch was almost strangled by the two with how happy they were about the gift.

Vali had gifted everyone even Daisy a similar gift that differed based on the pictures they liked and which ones they were features in. Steven looked at the glass Aggron that she'd gifted him with wide eyes, "Where on earth did you get this?"

"The Lantern Festival," Vali explained with a grin, "I saw it and thought about you. I was planning on giving it to you earlier, but thought better of it since traveling with that in your bag isn't a good idea considering how easily it could get broken,"

"Thank you, Vali. I'm definitely going to send this home," Steven looked at it curiously, "But I don't recall seeing a booth having anything like this,"

"It was when we separated for a bit after getting something to eat," Vali explained as Vulpix pulled himself into her lap, "There were a bunch of others too, I would've gotten more, but I didn't have enough money on me. I think I'll go back next year if I have a chance and see if I can buy more since they're really well made from what I can tell,"

"I can see why if they were anything like that one," Daisy let out a wistful sigh, "I definitely need to go next year too,"

"Vali, why don't you open your presents," Delia said reminding Vali that she had her own stack of gifts.

Vali received a nice sweater from Delia and some other clothes that she'd been meaning to replace. Sirius had gifted her with a more expensive digital camera, batteries, and a few sd cards for it. Daisy gave her a book on Hoenn mythology. Professor Oak gave her a couple of journals and a copy of the rough draft of a research paper he was writing using information that she'd given him. Ash and Gary both gifted her with a few books on fire-types that they admitted to getting help obtaining. Steven's gift left her staring at it in shock, "S-steven?"

Steven offered her a warm smile, "I know that not being able to talk to your family outside of when we're in towns is a bit hard on you. With permission from my father, I'm giving you the newest version of the pokenav that won't be available until the new year."

Vali looked down at the fire painted pokenav then back at Steven, "But isn't this a bit expensive?"

"Not really, you're basically going to be a beta tester for it see as Father wants with make sure trainers won't be able to break it too quickly," Steven took it from her and turned it on, "I've programmed my number, Professor Oak's number, the number for this residence, your home residence, the general one for the League, and the police,"

Vali took the gift when he handed it back to her, "Thank you, Steven."

"It's no problem," Steven's smile turned a bit mischievous, "But that isn't the only gift I got you,"

Vali looked at him in confusion, "You didn't need to get me another gift."

"Technically, it wasn't going to be a Christmas gift, but forgot about it until we were leaving Fuchsia," Steven pulled a wrapped gift from behind his back and held it out to her.

Vali took it after placing her new pokenav down where it couldn't get broken and open the box to find a wooden carving of Moltres, "When did you get this?"

"Around the same time you got me the glass Aggron," Steven answered as Vali took the carved piece of wood, "I know that Moltres is your favorite of the three legendary birds and thought you'd appreciate the gift,"

Vali ran her fingers over the carving feeling the slightly rough edges, "Thank you, Steven."

It was about the size of a math textbook from her old world and almost as thick. Delia peered at it from on the couch next to where Vali was leaning against Balto, "We could hang it up above your bed, Vali."

"Yeah," Vali turned it over and found faded words inscribed on it, "Hey there are some words here,"

"Really?" Steven asked with a surprised expression on his face.

Vali nodded and ran her fingers over the words, _"The Lord of Flames watches over those that contain embers of the Eternal Flame."_

Paling as she said that, Vali stopped reading and reached up to grip Fawkes' feather through her shirt. Steven paled as well, "Vali, didn't that Ninetales say the Lord of Flames is watching you?"

"N-no. She said that he calls to me," Vali swallowed harshly, "Someone, a 'She', also calls to me, but not as much,"

Silence fell over the room, Vali's pokemon began to close ranks around her with Vulpix letting out a soft whine. Professor Oak took the carving from Vali and looked over the back reading aloud:

" _The Lord of Flames watches over those that contain embers of the Eternal Flame._

 _Tasked to teach them the way, the Lord of Flames guides all to his domain;_

 _In the burning place where flames never die, the Bearers of the Eternal Flame shall learn,  
_

 _Underneath his burning gaze, they shall become the guides of the Chosen..."_

"There is more, but it seems to have faded away," Professor Oak looked a bit pale as well, "Vali..."

"My dreams," Vali whispered softly, "He's trying to guide me to him,"

Vali hugged Vulpix to her chest feeling cold despite the warmth of her pokemon family surrounding her. Daisy, Ash, and Gary all looked more than a little spooked. The eldest Oak grandchild asked, "What exactly does that creepy poem have to do with Vali?"

"Ever since Sabrina tried to get into my mind when I first entered Saffron City, I've been having dreams more like visions that come and go," Vali looked at Daisy and for once didn't feel angry, "I learned from the Ninetales that gave me Vulpix's egg that the Lord of Flames is calling to me and they're supposed to lead me to him when the times comes," She closed her eyes as she admitted, "After we ended up in that cavern back in the Safari stone where Steven and I found those crystals, I had another vision that was diffrent from the others. I can't exactly explain what any of the visions are since something causes me a lot of pain whenever I try,"

"You didn't mention that to me," Steven looked a bit hurt.

Vali offered him an apologetic look, "You're already worried about me and my other visions. I didn't want to make it any worse. I'm sorry, Steven."

"So some mystical being is pretty much demanding you come find him?" Sirius asked earning a nod from Vali, "So its likely he won't stop sending you those visions until you do,"

Vali nodded as she closed her eyes, "It isn't time yet. In the first vision, he told me I would know when it was time to find him."

"But when will that be?" Sirius frowned deeply, "I don't like this, Pup,"

"I don't either, but it does convince me of something," Vali opened her eyes to look at him with a slight grin, "Coming to this world was meant to happen, I think we would've ended up here for one reason or another regardless,"

* * *

Ash and Gary quickly lightened the mood by announcing that they should all go get ready for the annual snow-ball fight. Professor Oak took the carving from Vali with her permission planning to try and find out what else had been written on the back. Delia announced her intention of staying out of the snow-ball fight while Sirius decided that he would be joining the boys' team. Steven, Vali, and Daisy would be against the three children. Sirius gave Vali a pout when he heard her group him with the two five year olds, "Pup!"

"You're an overgrown man-child, Siri," Vali grinned at him, "Of course we're going to group you with the actual children, Padfoot,"

"This means war," Sirius growled at her.

"Bring it on, Darling Godfather o'mine," Vali's grin widened even further.

Delia cleared her throat, "Go get dressed, you two."

"Yes, ma'am," The two chirp at the woman.

Vali went to her room and got ready to go outside. Vulpix would be staying with Delia, Idril, Terra, Empress, and Celina as they didn't enjoy the cold weather. He wasn't exactly happy, but not being allowed outside at the moment limited his options. Pulling on her jacket, she heard a knock on the door and turned to find Steven, "Steven, I..." She looked down slightly, "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about that other vision."

"I'm not exactly happy about it, but I understand why you did it," Steven said as he walked into her room, "Was it worse than the others?"

Vali shook her head, "Not really, it was more odd than anything else."

"Odd?" Steven looked at her curiously, "What do you mean by odd?"

Vali tried to think of a way to explain it, "A woman, she kind of looked like me only with red hair, looked over a battlefield from a nearby cliff. An army of pokemon and people marched forward below. She carried a black staff topped with one of those stones we found carved into the shape of a sun," She felt a faint amount of pain but not as much as the other visions she's had in the past, "I saw another black staff in my mind though I can't tell if it was wood or metal. It was taller than me and topped with one of those stones carved into a perfect circle only it turned a fiery red. I can't explain it, but somehow I know that I'm meant to have it."

Steven looked shocked at the amount of information she was able to give him, "Anything else you can tell me?"

"Somehow I know it was a war was going on and the woman had tried to stop it," Vali closed her eyes as the words came to her, "Despite how much she didn't want to fight and had done her best to protest, the war was happening. Knowing that neither side would stop fighting unless forced, she summoned a pokemon, a legendary of some kind, and had it raze the battlefield,"

Vali opened her eyes as she swallowed thickly. Steven looked a bit pale, "She summoned a legendary pokemon to kill them."

"Yeah," Vali shook her head lightly.

"You said it wasn't worse than the others," Steven murmured in a soft tone.

Vali closed her eyes, "I didn't have to walk among the flames and watch as they devoured everything it came across."

Steven sucked in a harsh breath, "Vali..."

"Like I said, it wasn't as bad as my visions sometimes are," Vali offered him a weak smile, "You should go get ready for the snow-ball fight,"

"Vali," Steven reached out to place a hand on her shoulder, "If you need to talk about it, I'm here for you. We're friends after all,"

Warmth filled her at those words, Vali nodded to Steven with a small smile, "I'll try though there is a limit of what I'll likely be able to say."

"That's all I ask," Steven squeezed her shoulder then smiled lightly, "Now, we have a three children to beat, don't we?"

Letting out a laugh, Vali nodded and Steven left to go get ready. She watched him go before shutting the door and leaning against it. A warm nose pressed into her cheek and she looked into Balto's eyes. Smiling a bit wider, she murmured, "I'm glad that I ended up in this world, Balto. If it means gaining a family and friends like I have, I do have to wonder how my old friends are doing."

* * *

Once Christmas was over, Vali and her pokemon began pushing themselves to their limits. Dragonite proved to be an asset as it allowed Vali to finally make way training Empress and bonding with the little dragon. Empress was as stubborn as her trainer could be which was the main reason they butted heads so much; however, she hadn't learned how to temper her stubbornness. Learning how to temper her stubbornness was rough, Dragonite wasn't the most gentle teacher and could be quite impatient. The amount of times Vali had to pull the little dragon from holes in the ground left the fire-type master-in-training a bit irritated though she made sure not to show it around the Bagon. Finally, the little dragon's temper exploded and she headbutted her trainer into a tree.

Empress let out a startled yelp when Dragonite tossed her into another boulder with enough strength to leave the little dragon dazed. By the time Empress recovered, she was being punched through the boulder into another one. Dragonite roared in fury and the little dragon understood that she'd crossed a line that she shouldn't have. Despite how mind boggling it was, Vali was a treasure for the elder dragon and she'd injured the fire-type master-in-training for no actual reason other than being too damn stubborn to listen to the advice her trainer was offering. Closing her eyes, she accepted the punishment that Dragonite was giving her.

When the next blow hadn't come, Empress opened her eyes and widened them at the sight of Vali standing in front of her. The fire-type master-in-training held up her hands, "Enough, Dragonite. Empress understands that she's done something wrong."

Dragonite growled, but stopped attacking. Vali turned towards Empress and smiled weakly, "How about we get you to Professor Oak and take a break from training today?"

Empress looked at her trainer in confusion. Why wasn't Vali angry at her? She'd headbutted the girl into a tree for Arceus' sake, so why wasn't she angry? Vali bent down and rubbed her hardened skull, "Empress, you don't understand why I'm not angry, do you?" She nodded with a little reluctance, "I could never be truly angry at one of my pokemon since you're mine. Getting angry for something as simple as you attacking me during the height of your emotions would be stupid, you're a young pokemon that's quite hot-headed sometimes and stubborn. It's a lot like how I used to be," She looked at her trainer in confusion, "I'm still hot-headed sometimes and being stubborn is something that pretty much runs in the family according to Siri. Thing is, my hot-hotheadedness got me into a lot of trouble back when I was going to this school. It nearly got my old friends and I killed quite a few times. Granted, it got me into the situation that led to Sirius and I coming to this world," Vali shook her head lightly with a soft laugh, "But all those times I nearly got myself and those I cared about killed plus my pokemon journey so far all taught me one thing, I will only risk the lives of not only myself, but those I care about if I continue down that path," Vali bent down until their heads were level with one another and stared into her eyes, "Empress, you will not reach your goal at this rate. If you can't work together with me and the rest of our family, you'll lose out on becoming the most powerful Salamence in the world. I want to see each of our family reach their goals, but they won't be able to do that alone. They'll need you to help them just as much as each other and me," Vali held out a hand to her and she looked at the appendage with wide eyes, "Let's try this again, Empress. As a team."

Empress slowly took the appendage and Vali offered her a slight grin, "I'll try to do better by you, Empress, so long as you do the same."

Nodding as determination filled her, Empress realized that she'd chosen the right trainer to be her partner. No, she'd known that already, but had been too blinded by her stubbornness and arrogance to fully realize it. This strange human was far too patient and way too friendly for her own good, she was going to have to watch over her trainer if only to ensure that no one took advantage of her.

* * *

Delia treated Vali's heavily bruised stomach after Professor Oak made sure it was nothing more than some serious bruising, "Vali, most trainers wouldn't keep a pokemon after that."

"I'm not most trainers," Vali winced a bit as Delia placed just a bit too much pressure on the bruises, "Besides, Empress and I are going to have a better relationship after this," She sighed as Delia began rubbing bruise balm into her skin, "Any trainer that gives up on a pokemon just because they get a bit bruised is despicable. Training is more than catching a pokemon and battling with it, you have to actually train it, work alongside it, help it become stronger through more than battle, help it become wiser, and help it reach it's greatest potential," She rubbed behind Vulpix's ears when he let out a whine, "It takes blood, sweat, and tears from both parties. Empress and I have had a rocky relationship so far," She glanced over to where one of Professor Oak's aids was fixing up Empress, "It doesn't mean that I'm going to give up. She's a member of my family after all,"

Delia let out a sigh, "I just hope that things work out better now and you don't end up in the hospital again."

Vali grimaced at the reminder that she'd been in the hospital twice since her journey started, "Neither times were mine or my pokemon's faults."

"I know," Delia finished tending to her bruises and began bandaging her stomach, "But Vali, please be a bit more careful,"

"I'll try," Vali knew that Delia was worried about her especially with the whole thing at Christmas.

Delia finished bandaging the bruises, "Vali, it's almost been three months since you and Eevee made that deal."

Vali lowered her shirt with a small sigh at the reminder, "Yeah, I know. I'm going to talk to him in two days since we're going to be leaving two days after that."

"What do you think Eevee will decide?" Delia asked as she began putting away the medical supplies she'd used to tend to Vali's bruises.

Vali thought about it carefully as Vulpix moved to settle in her lap. Smiling down at him, she rubbed behind his right ear earning a soft purring sound, "I'm not sure, but I'll stick by whatever decision he makes. I'd love to have Eevee choose to stay with us and I know the rest of our family does too. Being without Eevee would be difficult to get used to, we'd probably be off kilter for a long while and likely never fully recover since he's as much a member of the family as anyone," She sighed as Vulpix nuzzled into her, "But that's a price I know we'll all be willing to pay if that's what makes him happy."

"And if he chooses to stay with you?" Delia prompted with a smile.

"I'd give him the choice to remain on my inactive team or train him to become a battler," Vali thought about battling with Eevee and a grin spread across her face, "I'd love to battle with him. It makes my heart race just thinking about battling with him," She hugged Vulpix gently to her chest making sure to avoid putting too much pressure on her bruised stomach, "But just being around him would be nice,"

* * *

Eevee listened to Vali's words and his ears drooped as he began walking away once the humans changed their topic to what they'd be eating for dinner. Sure, Vali had always said those things when she knew he was in ear-shot, but the part of him that refused to accept that any human could be kind to him had convinced the fox-like pokemon that it was an act she'd put up in front of him. His original trainer had done that at first, the boy had acted as if Eevee was everything he'd ever wanted in life before turning around and badmouthing the young at the time pokemon to those 'friends' of his. Then when he'd refused to evolve into the psychic or dark-type evolution, the boy had become angry an dropped the act.

But Vali wasn't like the boy, Eevee knew that both from her words and actions. The fact she'd forgiven Empress for daring to attack her made that quite clear. The part of him that had been whispering doubts about Vali began to shrink as the one that whispered about how diffrent she was from the boy became louder. He'd given Vali his trust and she had yet to break it. Vali had taken what he'd given her with a smile and never asked for more than he was willing to give. Vali knew the same pain he'd gone through and was willing to help him as others had. Vali was willing to give him his freedom even if it hurt her. So absorbed into his thoughts, he hadn't noticed that he'd walked into the lab where all the strange pack he'd found himself in was resting outside of Vulpix and Empress.

Balto noticed his distress and asked why with a concerned bark. Eevee hesitated as the rest of the pack focused on him before he relayed the problem. Each member of the pack was quiet as they mulled over the information he'd given them. When they began to speak, he wasn't as surprised to hear their opinions on the matter as he'd thought he'd be. While they wanted him to stay within the pack, they were willing to let him go if he so wished no matter how much it would hurt them all. They couldn't stop a member of their pack from being happy even if it meant leaving. Balto let out a low rumble and nudged him stating that he'd be a member of the pack no matter the choice he made. Looking into the eyes of Vali's eldest pokemon and the alpha of their make-shift pack, he understood just what choice he was going to take.

* * *

Vali headed to her favorite spot in the Corral with Eevee sitting on her shoulders while Balto and her other fire-types kept Vulpix occupied. She took a seat on the fence after clearing away the snow there and Eevee slipped down to sit beside her on the fence post. After a few moments of silence that she used to gather her thoughts, the fire-type master-in-training spoke, "Eevee, the deadline for our deal is in five days, but there is no telling if Steven and I will be in a town at that time. Because of that, I think it's time you make your decision on whether or not to stay with us. No matter your choice, I'll accept it," She swallowed harshly and looked at Eevee, "Will you stay with us, Eevee? With me?"

Eevee offered her a hard stare as she held a hand out to him. She kept her eyes open and tried to figure out what he was looking for. Eventually, he placed a paw on her hand and let out a bark. She let out a breath and grinned, "So you're staying with us?" Eevee nodded and she grinned, "I'll make sure you don't regret it."

Vali made sure he could see her movements as she reached out to pick him up. When he didn't reject the touch, she brought him to her chest and hugged the normal-type gently as warmth filled her. She knew that Eevee could choose to leave her down the line and that was okay since it was his choice. She'd just have to do her best to show him that he'd chosen right.

* * *

"So if Eevee is staying with you, will you battle with him or not?" Daisy asked once Vali finished relaying what Eevee had said.

Vali looked at Eevee who was staring at Daisy with narrowed eyes, "Eevee," He looked at her, "It's your choice. Do you want to battle with me or remain on my inactive team?"

Eevee eyed her lightly before barking and Alakazam translated it for Vali, _"He wishes to be a battler."_

"Battle it is," Vali looked at Professor Oak, "Professor, what are the protocols for this kind of thing?"

"Eevee will still be on your inactive team for another two months, but if no incidents occur during that time, you'll be able to add him to your roster full time," Professor Oak replied with a bright smile, "You can train him however you wish. I will be giving you an everstone to ensure that he won't evolve during this time as evolution can make any lingering problems in abused pokemon resurface. Until we can ascertain just how stable he is, he'll need to wear it just in case,"

Vali looked at Eevee, "Are you okay with that?" Eevee nodded after a moment, "Alright. Can you fashion it into something Eevee will have an easy time carrying that's durable and won't be too constricting?"

"I can do that," Professor Oak nodded as she scratched just above Eevee's cream colored rough, "Other than that, you should be just fine,"

* * *

Vali began packing her things up making sure to put anything she wanted to leave home away. The biggest fragments of Vulpix's egg were placed in a special case along with some of the fur he'd shed not long after hatching. Ash walked into her room, "Hey, Vali."

"Hey, Ash," Vali looked up from the clean clothes she was folding, "What's up?"

"I was wondering who you'll having stay behind since you can only carry six pokemon," Ash answered as he sat down on the bed with was currently rather cluttered with the stuff she needed to put away, "I know Eevee and Vulpix are on your inactive team, but who are you taking?"

"I'm leaving it up to my pokemon," Vali told him as she finished folding her clothes and began putting them into her bag, "I know that Smaug and Balto are staying with me. Other than that, it'll be up to my pokemon,"

"Who do you think will stay behind?" Ash asked her curiously.

Vali thought about it carefully, "Idril and Terra will likely stay behind because of the cold weather not agreeing with them. Same with Celina, the Pidgey-line hate cold weather after all. Anyone else is pretty much a toss up," She looked at him, "Why do you ask?"

"Would Gary and I be allowed to come play with your pokemon?" Ash flushed a bit, "Please,"

"So long as they want to play and you both do your homework," Vali grinned a bit at his groan, "You also have to be good for Delia and try to keep your room clean,"

"Fine," Ash perked up a bit, "Can we help them train?"

"Yes, but only if Professor Oak agrees and is there to oversee the training sessions," Vali grinned a bit, "Think of it as hands on learning for when you're a trainer and have more pokemon than Pidgey,"

Ash's own grin appeared and he jumped off her bed, "That's going to be so awesome!"

* * *

Vali looked over her pokemon with Professor Oak standing nearby with a clipboard to mark down who was staying at the lab. Balto and Smaug were sitting with the two members of her inactive team next to her. Celina quickly moved to the side of the room with Idril and Terra following the Pidgeot as she'd expected. Pippin darted over to join the two coming with her and slammed into Balto's side earning an eye-roll from the two. Empress joined him with a small snort. Elrond floated over after a moment with Arwen moving to join those staying behind. Pele looked a bit confused, but moved towards Vali after a moment. Professor Oak marked that down on the clipboard, "I'll get everything set up in the system while checking to make sure Vulpix and Eevee are definitely on your inactive team."

"Thank you, Professor," Vali told him honestly earning a warm smile.

"It's no trouble," Professor Oak left the room.

Vali looked over each of her pokemon with a sad smile, "Each of you staying at the lab, I'm going to be checking in as much as I can. Please do your best to continue training, I'm going to put together some training schedules. Celina knows what to do, so look to her for guidance if you need help with something, okay?" They all nodded and she moved to hug each of them, "I love you guys and hate knowing that we won't be traveling together. I'm going to do my damn best to ensure that I can up my carry-limit as soon as possible. Ash and Gary will likely be coming by a lot to play with you guys. You can refuse if you want. They're going to try helping you all train, but only let it happen if an adult is around to watch over it all."

* * *

"I'm going to stick around for another week or two," Daisy announced the night before Vali and Steven were due to leave, "I need to make up for being so absent and I still have to figure out where I want Alakazam to drop me off,"

"Have you two figured out where you want to be dropped off?" Delia asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Vermilion City," Steven answered after they shared a look, "We want to get used to traveling again and neither of us really have a use for going back to Celadon at the moment same with Cerulean,"

"Not to mention that a lot of trainers are traveling to and from Vermilion City at this time of year which means more of a chance to help my newer pokemon get used to battling," Vali added the information that she'd researched, "I would also like to see Lt. Surge to see what kind of idea he had about training Elrond,"

Ash frowned a bit, "How come?"

"Lt. Surge is Kanto's leading expert on electric-type pokemon and there are rumors he's been to Alola more than once though no one has seen any Alolan electric-types he might have," Vali answered as she picked up her glass of sweet berry flavored soda, "I'd also like to ask him for any advice for training Eevee. Seeing as the abused pokemon found in the Kanto region all go through his care one way or another not to mention the fact that he helped me a lot during our time in Vermilion City, I know he'll definitely be able to help me somehow. There's also the fact that he's interested in Elrond, it makes a lot of sense to visit him now rather than later,"

"This actually makes things easier," Professor Oak commented earning everyone's attention, "I need something delivered to Lt. Surge. Since you're planning to visit him, will you deliver it for me?"

"Sure," Vali agreed as Steven inclined his head, "It won't be any trouble, Professor,"

Delia looked a bit curious, "Steven, what about you?"

"My father is sending someone to meet with me," Steven answered with a slight smile, "I'm going to be spending time doing paperwork for the most part. Catching up on things that I've missed since coming to Kanto,"

* * *

Vali pulled on her backpack after making sure everything was inside of it. She looked down at Vulpix and smiled, "Ready to see the real world, Vulpix?"

Vulpix barked and wagged his tail. Bending down, Vali picked him up and left her bedroom. All she had to do was beat Sabrina, Blaine, and Giovanni then she'd be qualified for the Indigo Plateau Conference.

 **IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN THE LIST OF VALI'S POKEMON, IT IS ON MY PROFILE. PLEASE STOP ASKING ME ABOUT IT.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997: This chapter was an interesting one to write especially since I decided to tie up some loose ends, I will admit that I could've put some more details in some places, but things didn't happen like that especially since my muse wanted things to go a certain way. I hope you all enjoy it. I also updated a bit early this time. Some of you might have complaints, but remember I'm the author and may write as I wish and everything happens for a reason in my story even if it isn't quite as apparent as some might like.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Dark Wolf of Teros : No need for the names since Elrond had been named.**

 **syphiralae : The list is updated a few days after the chapter is posted to prevent spoilers for those waiting for the update.**

 **AyameKitsune : Here is the next chapter.**

 **frankieu : Hope this chapter gives you the answer.**

 **BioHazard82 : thank you.**

 **Sn : Mostly being mauled, I mean there is a reason dragon-types aren't given out as starters unless they're part of the Blackthorn clan like Lance or Clair.**

 **reptoholic : More pokemon will be waiting for now, but I do have plans. You'll just have to wait and see.**

 **yaoishipsforlife : Hope I do him justice.**

 **ulquiorra31 : thank you.**

 **BloomOutOfSeason : I just get a bit tired about being bugged for a list and don't want to bog down the chapter. I hope you enjoy this one as well.**

 **Lady Kaiki : Updates happen once a month. I will not update sooner unless my job allows for it. Please do not ask again.**

 **japs. p9 : Glad you liked it.**

 **comodo50: It's okay. Yeah, I'll probably go back and fix that soon. **

**Flippy the Demon : Glad you like the story.**

 **PhenioxMaster : That makes me so happy!**

 **Poseidon93 : Glad you enjoyed it.**

 **HaMiroKar420 : That makes me so happy to hear, *Inwardly squeals***

 **Xion The XIV : Haven't decided yet. Not quite especially since I don't like Ferrothorn for reasons that I can't quite explain.**

 **Kiki : You'll just have to wait and see.**

 **Gengar : Glad you like it.**

 **ThunderClaw03 : Probably not, Steven might at some point though.**

 **yachiru-chan92 : Thank you.**

 **Jostanos : I know. When I saw someone suggest it, it was like my mind went boom with how well it fit.**

 **sammyfox : thank you.**

 **amerdism : Once a month. Because she doesn't want to forget her parents. **

**Confections : Lots of reviews:**

 **Review 1) Yeah I kind of messed up there and will likely go back at some point to fix it when the story is complete.**  
 **Review 3) It's actually a lot like that for me. I'm a middle child as well and my siblings pretty much treat me as a welcome mat pretty much and drown out my voice if I talk. Bill in my mind would probably be more interested in Vali who came from another world rather than Steven who he's probably met a few times in the past considering the fact they're both heirs to important corporations in the pokemon world.**  
 **Review 4) Agreed, but I needed to introduce the inner flame in a pretty big way and this was the best one in my mind. I'm fairly sure I explained it or implied it at least that he was drawn to Vali via her inner flame. Yes, she'll try to keep the promise.  
Ending questions: Will all be answered eventually.**

* * *

Words: 18,791

* * *

Chapter 14

* * *

After saying their goodbyes with Delia giving the two some snacks, Vali and Steven went to Professor Oak's lab. An aid led them to one of the side rooms in the laboratory where Professor Oak was fiddling with a pokedex. The aid cleared her throat, "Professor, Vali and Steven are here."

Professor Oak looked up from the pokedex and beamed, "Right. Thank you for bringing them to me, Annie."

Annie nodded lightly and took her leave without another word. Vali watched her go for a second somewhat surprised at the rather unhappy seeming aid. Generally, Professor Oak's aids were usually in various states of being tired/harried/scratched up, but generally cheerful since they got to work with a lot of diffrent pokemon all day while also increasing their scientific knowledge. She wondered if Annie wasn't feeling well before inwardly shrugging since it wasn't really her problem. She looked at Professor Oak curiously as Steven asked, "So what are you having us deliver, Professor?"

Professor Oak put down the pokedex he'd been fiddling with and moved towards the shelves where a plain looking brown shoe-box sized package sat, "As you know the wild fire that occurred the last time you were in Vermilion was created due to the actions of a young trainer somehow slipping a Magmar through our security, the League has tasked many of the scientists within Kanto and Johto to find a way to ensure it won't happen again," He picked up the box and brought it over to the table, "This is my answer to that, I am unsure if it will work which is why I'm sending this to Lt. Surge."

"Because Vermilion's port is typically the only one to really see any travel from outside of Kanto and anyone going to Cerulean bay are usually sailors rather than travelers/tourists," Vali looked at the package in interest, "Is it a scanner of some kind, Professor?"

"Yes, it is," Professor Oak pushed the package across the table to Steven who picked it up, "With any hope, it'll be able to find any pokemon like Magmar that require a more experienced hand allowing the proper authorities to confront the trainer and discover if they're at a level where they can properly deal with said pokemon," Professor Oak radiated a sense of pride as he looked at the package, "If it can, we might be able to prevent another incident such as this from happening or at least, on such a large scale," Professor Oak dug a letter out of his desk and handed it to Vali, "Please give this to Lt. Surge as well,"

"Of course," Vali placed the letter into one of the inside pockets of her jacket, "Professor, what happened to that Magmar? They never mentioned it,"

Professor Oak grimaced with low sigh, "Due to the way it was captured and released in a place far from it's home, the rage it felt was too great resulting in it's death."

Vali winced at that though she could understand. Magmar weren't pokemon that could be reasoned with once they got pissed off enough. She sighed deeply feeling a flare of anger towards the stupid brat that had forced such a powerful being into a situation that caused it's death. At the very least, the Magmar had died in battle which fit it's species to a T as they lived and breathed for battle. Pushing away her anger, she murmured, "I hope this scanner works."

"Now let's send you both on your way, Vali it would be best for Vulpix to be returned," Professor Oak warned the witch, "Teleportation on young pokemon isn't a good idea unless they're shielded via a pokeball,"

"Right," Vali took out Vulpix's pokeball, "I'll release you soon, Vulpix,"

Vulpix seemed to pout at her, but didn't resist being returned to his scarcely used pokeball. Vali had only ever recalled him into the pokeball three times after capturing him since the fox was small enough to be easily carried without any trouble. Not to mention, she really liked being able to cuddle with the baby of her family. Professor Oak smiled a bit, "He's definitely adjusting to the bond if he is willing to be returned."

"Somewhat, he prefers being outside which I don't mind since it is a way to bond with him," Vali secured Vulpix's ultra ball to the necklace that carried Fawkes feather, "So are we being taken to the pokemon center?"

"Yes. I would suggest checking into a room before doing anything else since Vermilion is rather crowded this time of year," Professor Oak warned them as they left the room and headed towards the front of the lab where Alakazam would be taking them to Vermilion.

"Right, it's the high point in Vermilion's winter tourist season," Vali thought about the pokedex Professor Oak had been fiddling with, "Professor, are you going to be updating the pokedex soon?"

"Not very soon, I am playing around with the next few features I plan to add," Professor Oak replied as they made their way through the lab, "I hope to have it finished for the next batch of trainers,"

Vali nodded slowly, "Professor, I have a small suggestion for a new feature."

"Oh?" Professor Oak looked at her curiously alongside Steven.

"Perhaps a transfer option, I know Bill is working on it since we discussed it a bit when Steven and I checked on him for you. I wasn't sure if you were as well, so I thought it might be a good idea to bring it up if you're working on some new features for the pokedex," Vali said immediately gaining Professor Oak's full attention and she began to explain the option, "One that doesn't require going to a pokemon center to transfer a pokemon or two for people like me who don't like being separated from their pokemon. Obviously, it would be a feature available only to higher ranking trainers and League personnel. The League would obviously get the option to transfer around more pokemon than anyone not with them once it proves viable and the system can sustain the strain without a problem. Maybe a badge limit? You'd need like four or five to be able to access this feature,"

Professor Oak grinned brightly, "We have been thinking of something like that with Bill doing the brunt of experimenting with it, but haven't quite found a way to sell the idea to the League in order to gain funding for such a project. If we expand on your idea a bit further while explaining it and perhaps..." Professor Oak began muttering to himself as they exited the lab and Alakazam appeared making the Professor shudder a bit as a wave of psychic-type energy radiated from the powerful pokemon for a few second, "Right, it's time for you two to leave. Vali, Steven, I wish you both luck and will contact you if there is a problem. Vali, you have the lab's number, right?"

"And your house number along with mine," Vali answered as she took out her pokenav to show him, "I also have numbers for the Ranger stations, the generic police number, the League's various numbers, Bill's number, and Steven's number,"

Professor Oak nodded as she put away her pokenav, "Just wanted to make sure, I want to be the first to know if you discover something like that cavern."

"Did you ever figure out who was responsible for the Durant?" Steven asked as Alakazam moved closer to the humans she'd be transporting.

"The Ranger's and League are doing a joint investigation into it," Professor Oak grimaced as he said that, "There are some speculations, I don't have much information about it though thankfully, the colony of Durant was small enough that the Rangers were able to remove them. A small group will be ensuring that they're completely gone and haven't managed to leave any eggs behind,"

"Good," Vali shuddered to think about what could have happened if there were more Durant, "Did they figure out how long the Durant had been there?"

"Around two months at most, the damage done is repairable," Professor Oak smiled in relief, "Apparently, one of the few Steelix that were in the Safari zone knew Fire Fang and had gained a taste for them which is mainly why the population was still small despite Durant being able to have multiple clutches of eggs during that time period,"

"Must be an experienced one if it was able to get it's Fire Fang hot enough to melt a Durant's outer shell," Vali shook her head with a small snort.

Steven cleared his throat, "What is going to happen to the Durant?"

"They're being sent back to their native Region save for one that found a home with one of the Ace Trainers that were assisting with capturing the Durant," Professor Oak looked at Steven as Alakazam placed a hand on Vali's shoulder, "If you want, I could see about getting one for you though you'd have to do quite a bit of paperwork and obtain a license for it,"

Steven thought about it before nodding, "If it wouldn't be too much trouble, I would love to have one. It will be interesting to see just how diffrent it's hive mind is compared to a Beldum."

"I'll see what I can do," Professor Oak looked at the two, "Safe travels, you two,"

"Try not to overwork yourself, Professor," Vali replied with a smile.

With that, Alakazam teleported them to Vermilion City.

* * *

Steven's pokenav chimed repeatedly as they reached the room they'd be sharing for their stay in Vermilion city. Steven answered it after setting his bag down on the bed he was claiming, "Hello?" Vali looked at him curiously as she set her own bag down, "You're in Vermilion? Good, I've arrived as well. Where are you? I see," Steven smiled lightly, "I'll meet you there in a few minutes. See you then."

"So whoever you're meeting is here?" Vali summed up as she released Vulpix.

"Yes," Steven nodded as Vulpix immediately began looking around the room, "I need to go. Will you be fine going to see Surge alone?"

"Of course," Vali picked up Vulpix, "Seeing as it's barely 1 in the afternoon, do you want to meet up at 6 for dinner in the cafeteria?"

"Sounds good," Steven held out the package, "I'll introduce you to the one I'm meeting with then,"

After shifting Vulpix to rest against her shoulder, Vali took the package, "Okay."

Steven put his pokenav back into his pocket and moved to go through his bag, "You better get going since the Professor likely informed Lt. Surge about us coming to see him."

Vali inwardly laughed since Lt. Surge can be impatient at times, "Right. I'll see you and your friend at 6," She left the room with Vulpix looking around the strange area curiously, "Let's go see Lt. Surge, Vulpix."

* * *

Vermilion city was even colder than Pallet town, but there was less snow on the ground. The city was alive with travelers from all over the world either visiting family or on the various 'Holiday' Cruises that visited Vermilion at this time of year. It would be a few weeks before it all died down until the traveling trainers began the final rush to get ready for the Conference either getting their last badge or doing some last minute training. She was glad that the Conference wasn't until May this year which gave her 4 months to get the last three badges she needed and the intensive training she'd be doing to get ready for it. Heading for the gym, she reached it rather quickly and entered the heated lobby with some relief.

Vali had to stare at the small crowd in the room before shaking her head and making her way towards the front desk. The same woman from her first visit, Monica, looked a bit harried. Probably from having to deal with a lot of people, the fire-type master-in-training could understand that feeling. She cleared her throat and Monica bit out, "The line for battles is-Vali?"

"Hey, Monica," Vali greeted the beautiful magenta haired woman with a warm smile, "Mind telling Lt. Surge that I've arrived?"

"Of course," Monica glanced at the crowd of people, "You might want to stand here since there aren't many chairs left,"

"I don't mind standing," Vali said as she glanced at the crowd, "Let me guess, you guys have been overrun by tourists in hopes of battling one of the greats?"

"Happens every year," Monica shook her head lightly as she began typing on her computer, "Makes Surge more than a little annoyed,"

"I don't blame him," Vali shifted Vulpix out of her coat and set him on the desk earning a look of surprise from Monica, "Monica, this is Vulpix. He hatched around two weeks ago,"

"He's adorable," Monica grinned a bit as she looked back the screen, "He looks like he's growing just fine too,"

Monica finished sending the information to Lt. Surge before focusing on the baby Vulpix who was looking at her with confusion. Vali spent the time until Lt. Surge finished whatever he was doing and came to greet her talking about what she'd been doing since leaving Vermilion. Lt. Surge slammed open the door much like last time and came stomping out scaring the crap out of everyone in the room as he barked, "Kid! It's about time you came to see me."

"Sorry for the wait, Surge," Vali replied with a light grin as she picked up both the package and Vulpix, "Though are you sure you've got time to meet with me?"

Lt. Surge snorted at her before barking at the tourists staring at them, "Scram! I ain't got time to deal with the lot of you today. Either schedule a battle or get the fuck out!"

Most of the people scrambled from the room with a few grumbled, the ones that stayed quickly moved to talk with Monica. Vali let out a soft laugh as she soothed Vulpix, "Guess they've been getting on your nerves, huh?"

Lt. Surge rolled his eyes as he opened the door, "Come on, Kid."

Vali followed after him well aware of the stares burning into her back. The door closed behind them and they walked towards Lt. Surge's office, "Is it like this every year?"

"It's worse around Christmas and New Years Eve," Lt. Surge glanced at her and caught sight of Vulpix, "That the runt?"

"Hatched around two weeks ago," Vali answered as she shifted Vulpix into a more comfortable position that allowed the Gym Leader to get a better look at Vulpix, "Still hasn't gained any white to his tail, I'm not worried especially since he's growing just fine,"

Lt. Surge nodded as they entered his office, "Take a seat, Kid. Where's Stone?"

"Steven's friend arrived a bit early, so he's meeting with them," Vali explained as she sat down after greeting Jolteon and Raichu, "I'm going to be meeting them at 6 in the Center cafeteria for dinner," She set Vulpix down before placing the package onto Lt. Surge's desk and the letter on top of that after fishing it out of her jacket, "Here is the stuff Professor Oak asked us to deliver,"

"Thanks, Kid," Lt. Surge picked up both and set them off to the side, "So what's this I heard about your Pikachu becoming an Alolan Raichu?"

Vali tugged Vulpix back to keep the fox from attempting to chew on anything and pulled out a chew toy for him, "Elrond, Raichu finally chose a nickname, evolved after Balto faced his Sire. Rather than evolve into a Kanto Raichu like we were expecting, he became an Alolan Raichu. Professor Oak suspected that he might be from Alola based on the fact he has Electric Terrain in his move-set, but it wasn't until Elrond evolved that his suspicions were realized."

"I had the same thoughts, but didn't think he'd evolved into an Alolan Raichu outside of Alola," Lt. Surge sat down in his chair and leaned back against the leather, "Then again, it isn't actually surprising since Pikachu from Kanto have been known to evolve into regular Raichu even in Alola," Lt. Surge gave her a look, "I'm guessing you're hoping I might be able to help you figure out a way to train your Alolan Raichu, right?"

"Yes though I know I'll have to talk with Sabrina about his psychic abilities," Vali leaned down to pet Jolteon when he walked over, "I also wanted to talk to you about Eevee. He's decided to stay with me and become a battler,"

"Thought he might," Lt. Surge commented as he reached down and picked up Vulpix who'd decided that his chew toy wasn't very entertaining compared to the big man his mother figure was speaking to, "That Eevee has the fire of battler in his eyes, it's why he didn't fully break underneath those bastards. I'll help you come up with a training plan, but have you scanned him yet?"

"Not yet," Vali looked at Vulpix who was sniffing at the man now holding him, "I haven't scanned him either,"

"Might as well do both," Lt. Surge smirked lightly as he stood up, "Let's go to my indoor training grounds, what kind of pokemon do you have now?"

Vali stood up and took Vulpix back when Lt. Surge walked around the desk, "I have Balto and Smaug with me. Both of them are fully evolved, Balto is still alpha of the pack. Celina evolved as well, but she's staying at the Corral. Elrond is with me at the moment as is Eevee what with me asking you for advice when it comes to their training. Idril, Arwen, and Terra are staying at the Corral," Jolteon and Raichu followed them as they left the room clearly wanting to see what was going to happen, "While I know that Celina, Terra, and Idril are doing it because they don't really like the cold, I'm not too sure about Arwen other than wanting to spend more time training against fellow fire-types."

"That makes three able to battle and two on your inactive team," Lt. Surge glanced at her pokeball belt as they made their way into the indoor training ground that Vali had used a few times during her first time in Vermilion, "Who are the other three?"

"My female Numel that I've nicknamed Pele," Vali began as Lt. Surge moved to the keypad on the wall, "My female Bagon that chose the name Empress. And lastly, my male Shinx that I nicknamed Pippin or Pip for short. I got them all in the Safari Zone,"

"Which means you also found those Durant and that cave full of crystals," Lt. Surge put in a code causing the ground in the center of the room to split open and a plain looking battlefield appeared, "Interesting luck you have there, Kid," He grinned a bit as Raichu climbed onto his shoulder and Jolteon sat beside his feet, "You have good tastes in electric-types. The Shinx-line are definitely good pokemon especially when they're trained well. Release your team, I want a good look at them. How long are you and Stone planning to stay in Vermilion?"

"A week maybe two depending on the weather," Vali began releasing her pokemon who all looked around the indoor training ground with interest, "Guys," Everyone looked at her after a few moments of scanning the room, "Smaug, Balto, Elrond, and Eevee know who this is due to our time here in Vermilion. Empress, Pippin, and Pele, this is Lt. Surge," She waved a hand towards him as Empress eyed the man with disdain earning a smirk from the Gym Leader, "He's the Gym Leader of Vermilion City,"

Lt. Surge looked over her pokemon with a trained eye before nodding, "Not bad, I assume you haven't trained the newer ones much?"

"Not as much as I should have mostly," Vali admitted as she offered the three an apologetic look, "Between giving Professor Oak what information I could get on the Safari Zone and getting ready to face Koga, I didn't focus on them like I did everyone else,"

"Considering that you got all three of them so close together, I'm not surprised," Lt. Surge bent down and pointed to Pippin who rushed over only to trip on his paws halfway there, "Clumsy, isn't he?"

"Yeah. I'm try to figure out how to deal with that," Vali watched as Lt. Surge began examining Pippin, "Nurse Joy said there isn't anything physically wrong with him or mentally,"

"Hmm," Lt. Surge picked up Pippin and touched his tail making the Shinx squirm a bit, "Come over here, Kid,"

Vali walked over to him, "What's up?"

"It's this that's causing him to be clumsy," Lt. Surge gestured to the star on the end of Pippin's tail where Vali could see just a small patch of discolored fur, "Sometime soon after he hatched, something caught around just before the star and probably stayed there for the first few months of his life until somehow being removed, I'm guessing the person that brought him to the Safari Zone probably removed whatever it was,"

"So his sense of balance is off due to the weight that was on his tail being gone?" Vali summed up earning a nod, "Is there anything I can do?"

"Not really, it'll be something that'll fix itself by the time he evolves into a Luxray," Lt. Surge put down Pippin who looking at the man with wide eyes, "Just keep an eye on him and do some exercises that will help with balance, I'll dredge some up," He pointed to Elrond who floated over and looked at the Gym Leader carefully, "Not bad coloring, you're a bit darker than most, but given the fact you're in Kanto rather than Alola, it isn't too surprising. Got bad headaches?" Elrond nodded and Lt. Surge frowned a bit, "Try to spend more time in the sun, it'll probably help with it some since most psychic-types do thrive best in the sunlight,"

"So have him travel outside of his pokeball more often?" Vali asked earning a nod.

"Though be careful during the winter months, Alolan Raichu don't have a very thick layer of fat compared to regular Raichu," Lt. Surge reached out as Raichu sniffed at Elrond who eyed the two carefully, "Has he tried to speak with you yet?"

"No," Vali shook her head, "Is it possible?"

"Yeah, but it'll take a lot of intensive training in his psychic nature to do it. You visiting the witch is a good idea," Lt. Surge rubbed around Elrond's cheek pouches and nodded to himself, "I can drum up a training schedule for him, but seeing the witch about training a psychic-type is a good idea,"

"Do you have an Alolan Raichu?" Vali asked wondered why Lt. Surge was calling Sabrina a witch.

"I've got a breeding pair. I'd introduce you, but my male pretty much hates any other males right now save for me since my female is pregnant," Lt. Surge let out a bark of laughter at her startled look, "Alolan Raichu breed this time of year,"

Making a mental note to keep that in mind, Vali asked, "Any advice you can give me?"

"That hit and run fighting style is best for Alolan Raichu since they don't loose much speed upon evolution compared to other Raichu," Lt. Surge finished looking over Elrond who moved to keep Vulpix was getting into anything, "But they don't have as much bulk or muscle as other Raichu do, they actually lose out on physical defense like most psychic-types. Keep working with him on that, you'll probably find some difficulty in getting him to use Dig until he gets a better grip on his psychic powers. Try to find a work around for that, I might have a few techniques he can learn, but your best bet is to look for psychic-type TMs. You'll find the most in Saffron considering how big they are about psychics especially the witch being their Gym Leader,"

"Why do you call Sabrina a witch?" Vali asked earning a snort from Lt. Surge.

"Long story, Kid. Let's just say that witch and I have never seen eye to eye," Lt. Surge gestured for Eevee to come over to him, "Mostly when it comes to rehabilitating pokemon, we probably won't ever really get along,"

* * *

Before Vali went to go meet up with Steven and his friend, she had finally scanned both Eevee and Vulpix at the urging of Lt. Surge. Needless to say, the two pokemon were full of surprises:

 _Eevee, the E_ _volution Pokemon. Eevee has an unstable genetic makeup that suddenly mutates due to the environment in which it lives. Radiation from various stones causes this Pokémon to evolve. It has the ability to alter the composition of its body to suit its surrounding environment. Current studies show it can evolve into an incredible eight different species of Pokémon._

 _This Eevee is Male and has the ability Adaptability. This Eevee knows Covet, Growl, Tackle, Sand Attack, Bite, Swift, Stored Power, Endure, and Shadow Ball._

 _Vulpix, the_ _Fox Pokemon. At the time of its birth, Vulpix has one white tail. The tail separates into six if this Pokémon receives plenty of love from its Trainer. The six tails become magnificently curled. Inside Vulpix's body burns a flame that never goes out. During the daytime, when the temperatures rise, this Pokémon releases flames from its mouth to prevent its body from growing too hot._

 _This Vulpix is Male and has the ability Flash Fire. This Vulpix knows Ember, Secret Power, and Heat Wave._

 _Warning: King gene present._

Admittedly, Vulpix was a bit more surprising than Eevee considering the fact that he had the King gene despite being a runt, but both of them had surprising moves that could only have come from their parents. Endure and Stored Power were probably the only reasons that Eevee had managed to survive the abuse of his former trainer even if it had only been used subconsciously. Both of their parents had to be pretty powerful for two egg moves to be passed down, she wondered which of their parents passed down each move. Obviously Heat Wave came from Ninetales, she wondered who Vulpix's father had been, but doubted she'd ever find out. Not only was Ninetales unlikely to be in the area, Ninetales tended to be secretive of their mates with only a scattering of known mated pairs being recorded.

Lt. Surge commented at the list with a raised eye, "Well that explains your Eevee surviving, but damn the King gene present in a fucking runt..."

"Professor Oak is going to be kicking himself for not having me scan Vulpix earlier," Vali knew he'd be calling her fairly soon.

Lt. Surge clapped her on the shoulder, "Kid, I stand by what I said about your luck. It's interesting."

"And I'm going to be waiting for the other shoe to drop," Vali wondered what else was going to happen.

Lt. Surge let out a bark of laughter, "Good luck, Kid. Get going though, it's a quarter to six."

"Thanks for the help, Surge," Vali returned her pokemon, "What time do you want me to come back tomorrow?"

"9:30," Lt. Surge replied as they left the indoor training ground, "I might have some jobs for you to do when we're not working your pokemon into the ground,"

Vali looked at him curiously, "What kind of jobs?"

"Nothing big, I'm mainly planning on having you take pictures of the pokemon that are being put up for adoption. Professor Oak sent in those pictures you took of the Safari Zone and despite not being done using a profession camera, they aren't half bad," Lt. Surge replied as Vali pulled on her jacket, "They're mainly to pokemon not able to battle anymore,"

"The kind people hope to get as pets?" Vali offered earning a nod, "Not a bad life considering where they came from, I don't mind doing it. Anything else?"

"I'll come up with something. You'll get paid for the work you do for me and it'll look good on your record if you're planning on becoming an Ace," They reached the lobby, "You up for it, Kid?"

"Sure," Vali smiled a bit, "Sounds like a plan. See you later," She waved to Monica, "See you, Monica,"

* * *

Steven's friend was a rather tired looking guy by the name of Ryner Moss. His pale cyan hair was long and shaggy, he had tired brown eyes hidden beneath a pair of wire frames with heavy purple bags beneath them. He wore a thick black sweater and some jeans that had definitely seen better days. He had a white messenger bag and beside him a cheerful Kirlia. Considering how tired he looked, Vali wondered just how much sleep the poor man actually got. Ryner offered her a tired smile, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Potter. Steven's told me a lot about you while we were working."

Vali glanced at Steven as she offered the man a smile and her hand, "I hope it's all good. Please call me Vali, Mister Moss."

"Ryner then," Ryner replied as they shook hands, "This little girl is my partner, Stella. She helps me stay on track and keeps me from losing things,"

"It's nice to meet you, Stella," Vali greeted the cheerful psychic/fairy-type, "I'd introduce my pokemon, but they're all being looked over by Nurse Joy. Lt. Surge really worked them over today,"

 _"It's alright. I'll meet them tomorrow,"_ A light almost melodic voice chirped, " _It's really nice to meet you, Vali! You're really pretty,"_

"Thanks..." Vali flushed a bit before looking at the two guys, "Let's go get dinner,"

They got their food rather quickly and found an unoccupied table. After they got settled, Steven asked Vali, "So I guess Surge is helping you out while we're here?"

"Yup. I'm going to be training with him from 9 in the morning till whenever he has to start battling," Vali ate some of her stew, "After that, he's got some jobs for me to do that'll give me some form of income since my pokemon will likely be a bit too tired to battle much once we're done training,"

"Like what?" Steven inquired as Ryner looked up from his own bowl of stew in curiosity.

"Not really sure other than taking some pictures of pokemon that'll be going up for adoption," Vali grabbed the salt shaker on the table and shook some out into her stew, "I'm fairly curious what else he's got in mind considering the fact that it'll look good on my record if I'm going to try for Ace,"

"That's pretty lucky," Ryner commented as Stella nodded beside her trainer, "I mean not everyone gets that kind of offer from a Gym Leader like Lt. Surge,"

"I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop especially given what we found out when scanning Vulpix and Eevee," Vali dreaded what kind of chaos could happen and hoped that no one got hurt because of it, "So what about you two? What did you do today?"

"Mostly working on some paperwork from some parts of the company that Father is having me oversee," Steven picked up his glass of water, "It is kind of interesting if a bit dull at times,"

"Vali, may I ask you something?" Ryner requested as Vali picked up her glass.

"Sure," Vali looked at him curiously.

"What exactly do you plan on doing once you compete in the Indigo Conference?" Ryner offered her a measured look, "Do you plan to travel to another region?"

Vali was a bit surprised by the question and didn't really have an answer. Sure, she had a few things she could possibly do, but most of them depended on other people. She wasn't sure about traveling to another region just yet since she was physically ten years old. She could go looking for whoever the 'Lord of Flames' was, but something told her she wasn't ready yet. She saw Steven giving her a curious look and knew he wanted to know as well. Looking at Ryner after taking a drink of her water, she said, "I'm not sure at the moment especially since I have a few offers on the table that either depend on someone else or how I place within the Conference. While traveling to another region seems interesting, I'm am a bit hesitant seeing as it would be more difficult to return home if I needed to."

"I see," Ryner nodded slowly, "Perhaps if you do choose to travel to another region, you might come to Hoenn,"

"I plan to at some point especially since I don't intend to lose contact with Steven," Vali smiled lightly as she looked at Steven.

Steven grinned at her, "Agreed."

After that, the conversation at the table was mainly Steven and Vali sharing stories about their travels through Kanto so far. Ryner and Stella offered a few stories of their own though it was manly the Kirlia. Ryner and Stella left after dinner not wanting to be walking to their hotel once it got too dark. Vali collected her tired pokemon from Nurse Joy and went to go take a shower after getting them all fed. Steven took his turn in the shower while Vali began grooming Vulpix. When she finished with Vulpix, a slightly reluctant Eevee took his turn. She looked up at Steven when he left the bathroom, "Who exactly are you bringing along with you?"

"Metagross, Claydol, Blastoise, Lileep, Mawile, and Skarmory," Steven answered as he moved to sit down on his bed, "My older Metagross. They're more familiar with psychic-type battles. Aggron is as well, but the cold doesn't quite agree with him. I am hoping Lileep will evolve before we arrive in Saffron,"

Vali recalled Professor Oak comments about Lileep's growth, "You'll probably need to battle with him a few more times before he evolves. Do you want me to see if Surge is willing to help out?"

Steven thought about it before nodded, "That would probably be the best idea."

"I'll talk to him about it tomorrow," Vali finished grooming Eevee, "There you are, Eevee. Who's next?"

Empress pulled herself onto Vali's lap and demanded attention. Reaching into her grooming kit, she pulled out the dragon kit that Professor Oak had gotten for her and pulled out the oil that was supposed to help make a Bagon's head that much stronger. She looked up at Steven as he asked, "Vali, when do you plan to look for..."

Vali paused in rubbing the oil into Empress' head before continuing as the Bagon let out a small growl, "I'm not sure. I know it isn't time for me to look, but when it is, I don't think I'll be able to resist especially given just how much I really need to find out what's going on," She looked up at him, "I'll let everyone know when it's time since I don't want you guys worry so much."

"I'm glad," Steven's shoulders relaxed a bit, "But do you have any idea when that time will be?"

Vali was quiet as she let herself fall into a slight meditative state to get an answer to that question. Funny thing about her inner fire, it was diffrent compared to her magic. With her magic, it went with the flow and generally responded to her will as she got older. With her inner fire, it was playfully chaotic and had to be coaxed into do what she wanted it to do. Both were sentient in a way, it took some time to figure that her inner fire was sentient considering how new it was to her. Generally, she had an instinctive understanding of her magic, but it took awhile for her to learn how to use that to her advantage. While her inner flame on the other hand refused to cooperate for anything, it only gave her vague impressions of things that were rarely ever clear. The only thing it seemed to be willing to give was a sense of anticipation when she thought about meeting the 'Lord of Flames'. After a few moments of 'poking' at it, she got her answer and told Steven, "A year or two."

"A year or two?" Steven frowned a bit, "That isn't very specific,"

"My inner flame doesn't really care about specifics," Vali retorted with a shrug as she focused on Empress who was releasing a low crooning sound.

Steven offered her a sheepish smile, "Sorry. I know this is hard for you especially given everything that happened with those tests."

Vali offered him a weak smile that was barely more than a slight twitch of her lips. She forced herself not to shiver as phantom pain raced through her body at the memory of those tests. Vulpix let out a low whine and pressed himself into her right side as Pele trotted over to nudge her legs. Smaug and Balto both looked at her with worry. Elrond floated over to press a paw to her shoulder. Eevee's gaze carried concern as he looked at her from his place on the pillow. Empress stopped crooning to look at her in wary curiosity. She pushed those memories from her mind as she murmured, "Yeah."

Vali calmed her pokemon down as Steven winced, "Sorry for bringing it up."

"It's okay, but let's just stop about this for a little while, okay?" Vali asked once she'd gotten everyone mostly calmed down and finished up Empress' grooming.

"Sure," Steven agreed with a slight frown.

Silence fell over them as neither of the trainers knew what else to say at the moment, the heavy note of the conversation they'd just had was difficult to shake. Eventually, Vali finished grooming her pokemon and got ready for bed. She glanced at Steven who was looking at something with his pokenav, "Hey, Steven?" He looked up at her, "When I do travel to Hoenn, will you show me around a bit? If you're not too busy being a Champion, that is."

* * *

Steven looked towards where Vali was sleeping with a frown on his face. Despite both of them going to bed on a high note, he couldn't seem to fall asleep and it all had to do with his traveling partner. Knowing that Vali had maybe a year if not two before she'd finally meet the 'Lord of Flames' was disconcerting, he was going to be the Champion of the Hoenn league by then or at least on his way to doing that. They were going to part once the Indigo Conference was over with maybe a few days after together, but he'd be going back to Hoenn. And Vali would be in Kanto, they'd be an ocean apart and like she'd told Ryner, it wouldn't be an easy thing to travel back to Kanto meaning he wouldn't be there to help her if she needed it.

Ryner was a good friend despite the fact Steven was somewhat tempted to strangle him right about now and he'd brought up a good question to Vali. What was she going to end up doing? A fire-type mastery was quite clear and she'd commented about wanting to become a member of the Elite Four multiple times during their journey. While he knew she could do it especially if Blaine decided to take her on, he wondered at what she'd do before then. An Ace trainer? It was possible and probably the most probable. He knew she'd keep up her hobby of taking photos, but what else was she planning on doing? So many questions though he supposed his biggest one was, where did he fit in her plans?

Steven didn't want to lose contact with Vali and knew she'd keep that from happening. The thing that unsettled him the most was not being able to see her as often once he left Kanto. The thought of not being able to turn his head and see Vali's reaction to whatever he'd said left him feeling a bit hollow. Sure, he'd be able to call Vali and ask for her opinions if he really wanted to now that she had a pokenav. But it wasn't the same, he wouldn't get to see the way Vali eyes darkened with thought as her mouth quirked into a slightly frown or how her nose scrunched up when she was thinking about something complicated. He wouldn't get a surprise hug from Vali when she managed to win a difficult battle or thanked him for helping her pokemon figure out how to do some new move. All those thoughts left him unsettled though he supposed it was due to Vali being his first real female friend.

* * *

Arriving at the gym right on time, Vali was sent to the indoor training ground where Lt. Surge waited. When she got there, the Gym Leader was pounding into a punching bag while his pokemon were working around him. Lt. Surge spotted her and barked, "Get your pokemon out and have them warm up! Get warmed up too, they're not the only ones getting a work out today."

Vali was somewhat glad that Lt. Surge had suggested she bring a change of clothes and wore ones she wouldn't mind getting dirty. Setting down her bag and taking off the jacket she was wearing, she called out her pokemon, "Everyone, I want you to start warming up. Vulpix, I want you to watch us, okay?" Vulpix nodded slowly with a curious tilt of his head, "You'll be doing this too once you're old enough."

All her pokemon had a specific warm-up though her fully evolved ones had changed theirs a bit, Vali mainly stretched for her warm ups and went through a small routine that Steven had cooked up with her. Smaug's routine involved stretching his wings and other muscles before going for a run in an attempt to up his ground speeds. Balto stretched his muscles and doing a small walk that would evolve into a run. Elrond's warm up had mainly become levitating things as he did a few other things that usually depended on his mood. Pele mostly ran around with Empress as they were her slowest pokemon outside of Terra and Idril. Pippin did his best to run while trying to keep from tripping up.

Lt. Surge called it all to a halt after ten minutes and they gathered around him, "Alright. Smaug, you'll be working with my Electivire to increase your power and get a better defense against electric-type attacks."

Smaug looked at her as Electivire let out a low whirling sound as it beat it's fists together. Vali nodded lightly and reached up to scratch under his eye like he liked, "Go on, Smaug."

After nuzzling his trainer lightly, Smaug moved to stand beside the powerful electric-type. Lt. Surge looked a little amused, "Balto," Balto peered at the man, "You'll be working with one of my Zebstrika to kick your speed up further. You'll also be working on aiming your attacks and hitting targets while moving at high speeds,"

A monster of a Zebstrika moved forward and nickered at Balto as it stomped a hoof. Vali patted Balto's side, "You do need help with that, Balto."

Balto nudged her and bent his head to nip lightly at Vulpix's ear before going over the the Zebstrika who eyed him. Lt. Surge snorted a bit as the Zebstrika flicked its tail almost dismissively, "Elrond, you're with Raichu. You've got less power than a regular Raichu which means you'll have to work harder if you want to pack a punch. Raichu'll walk you through it," Elrond nodded and floated over to Raichu with a small frown on his face, "Pippin, you'll be working with my female Luxray. She'll basically get you up to speed with your attacks and work on your balance."

The female Luxray let out a gentle purr as she walked over to Pippin. Pippin hesitated for a moment to glance at Vali for permission before rushing at the female when she nodded to him. She smiled softly as the two began to exchange some sparks and purrs. She looked back at Lt. Surge, "What about Empress and Pele?"

"They need to pick up their speed. Power won't mean shit if they don't have the speed," Lt. Surge replied causing Empress to growl at him earning a snort from the Gym Leader, "My Manectric will be working with them on that,"

The Manectric that stalked forward from the group of gym pokemon was absolutely beautiful. He was absolutely regal and clearly well-taken care. The golden fur around his head and legs was almost glowing in the fluorescent lights. The sleek blue fur coating the rest of his body was a bright and healthy almost neon sky blue. The three claws on each of his feet were razor sharp and perfectly shaped. The only thing that marred the beautiful pokemon was the long scar over his right eye that left the crimson coloring a pale pink. Vali looked into his eyes and knew that he was proud of the scar. She looked at Lt. Surge after a few moments, "He's absolutely beautiful. You take great care of him."

"He's been with me for a long time," Lt. Surge smiled as he ruffled Manectric's golden fur a bit earning a playful nip from the proud electric-type, "Seen hell with me,"

Vali offered Manectric a smile, "Thank you for your help, Manectric."

Manectric's gaze was measured as he peered at her before finally deigning to nod. Lt. Surge grinned a bit, "That just leaves Eevee and Vulpix, the runt can just sit back a bit since we're going to be working mainly with Eevee today. Jolteon here is going to help us."

With that said, everyone broke up with Pele taking a few minutes to follow after her apparent teacher. Lt. Surge led Vali, Eevee, Vulpix, and Jolteon over to a section of the indoor training ground covered by two obstacle courses. Looking over them, she had to ask, "Are we running those?"

"Yup," Lt. Surge turned to give her a grin that was all teeth, "All higher up trainers have to be physically fit especially if the League needs to call on them. Since you plan on becoming a Elite at some point, you're gonna need to work your ass off. You'll be going through these courses with each of your pokemon save for the runt at least once. Seeing as you'll be running them twice a day until you leave or I feel you're ready for the next level, you better get ready to be pushed to your limit,"

Vali looked at the obstacle courses which didn't seem that scary. They were comprised of a few simple platforms, a beam that obviously required some balance to cross, a set of monkey bars, a rock wall, and a pool of water that's obviously meant to be swam in. The pokemon side of the course had a some tilted platforms instead of monkey bars that ground based pokemon needed to cross. She narrowed her eyes at it since this seemed a bit too basic, "This isn't all there is to it, is there?"

"Good instincts, Kid," Lt. Surge pulled out a remote, "This lets me play around with the obstacle courses and make it harder, I'll be doing some basic stuff since you've never done anything like this before,"

"Right," Vali looked at Eevee who was eyeing the courses with distrust, "Eevee, let's get through this together, okay?" Eevee looked at her before nodding with narrowed eyes, "Though Surge would it be possible to nix the water on Eevee's side?"

Lt. Surge looked at Vali with a raised eyebrow before his eyes narrowed, "Tried to drown him, huh?"

"From my understanding, yeah," Vali replied was Lt. Surge fiddled with the remote and an icy platform appeared on the pokemon course, "We're going to work through it,"

* * *

The platforms they had to jump across shook and generally weren't very stable for long. The beam was stable, but a few sand bags randomly swung out. The monkey bars moved and weren't very easy to grip onto. The rock wall was missing some hand holds with some of them reappearing and disappearing randomly. The pool wasn't filled with regular water as it was too thick and weighty to be regular water. Getting out of the water was a little difficult as it didn't seem keen on letting go of her, Vali grunted a bit as she pulled herself out eventually. Once on dry land, she almost collapsed onto the ground feeling her muscles burn and protest.

Vali looked over at Eevee to find him slipping and sliding as he tried to get past the ice segment of his course. Taking the towel that Jolteon offered her, she began to dry off while walking over to the end of Eevee's course to offer some encouragement and suggestions. She called out, "Take it slower, Eevee. One paw step at a time, you'll learn how to be quicker later on."

Eevee looked at her before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath as he stilled his body. Once he wasn't in danger of falling over, Eevee began moving though at a much slower and more stable pace. When he reach Vali, she picked him up, "Good job, Eevee."

"Not bad, you two managed to finish the course in twenty minutes," Lt. Surge commented as he showed them a stop-watch, "Now, let's get down to some actual training. Eevee, I want a good look at your attacks considering the fact we focused on your base stats yesterday. Best way to do that is in a mock battle, Jolteon will be your opponent and you'll be working with the kid,"

They took their places on the battleground that Lt. Surge had appear. Jolteon seemed to smirk at Eevee who eyed the electric-type Eeveelution with some distrust. Vali took her place in one of the trainer boxes with Lt. Surge doing the same. Eevee glanced back at her with trust in his eyes, "Ready, Eevee?" Eevee nodded and turned forward as she pulled out her pokedex, "Let's start off with Swift, Eevee. Get Jolteon up and moving."

Eevee lept upward and released a rather decent amount of stars that streaked towards Jolteon. Jolteon lept out of the way with an easy grace to his movements and retaliated with a Swift attack of his own. Eevee used Shadow Ball to block the stars so he could land and let out a loud Growl that caused Jolteon to jolt back a bit. Lt. Surge let out a laugh, "Not bad, a bit sloppy, but considering where he came from, he's definitely better than I expected. Jolteon, Pin Missile!"

"Eevee, Endure!" Vali didn't really want Eevee to get hurt but she needed to see how well he could use it, "Dodge the attack as best you can while keeping up Endure,"

An almost impossible to see light green sheen covered Eevee's body as Jolteon released a ton of pin-like projectiles that flew towards him. With a move like Endure, it depended on the pokemon how it could be used. For some pokemon, it acted like an aura that absorbed some of the damage from an attack. For others, it deflected some of the attack. For more pokemon, it created a fragile shield that did it's best to take some of the damage. One time Vali had seen a match where one of Champion Timothy Carter's Venusaur tanked a full powered Blast Burn from his rival's Charizard without fainting. Eevee's Endure seemed to be acting as a mix between an aura and deflective shield from the way some of the pin's seemed to bounce off without being noticed as Eevee darted around the field. Eevee used Swift to get Jolteon to let up on the attack before going in close with Tackle and latching on with Bite. Jolteon let out a low yowl and used Discharge making Eevee let go with a cry of pain. Eevee released another Growl and rushed to create distance between them. Lt. Surge called an end to the bout before it could go any further, "That's enough."

Vali walked over to where Eevee was standing and bent down to check him over. Other than a few pin-like projectiles that needed to be removed and some electrical burns, Eevee was fine besides the usual exhaustion battle could cause for pokemon that aren't used to it. Carefully, she removed the pins quickly trying to keep from making the injuries worse. Eevee growled softly, but stayed still. When she finished, Lt. Surge handed over a potion for her to spray his injuries with, "Nurse Joy'll take care of any lingering electrical damage."

"Thank you," Vali sprayed Eevee's injuries making sure that each of the small wounds caused by the pins had closed up and that his electrical burns were treated though the one on the inside of his mouth was a bit difficult, "So what do you think?"

"Like I said during the battle, he's sloppy, but a lot better than what I expected," Lt. Surge tended to the bite wound that Eevee had given Jolteon, "My advice is make sure he can get all those attacks off properly and start having him store up power for Stored Power. Have him bask in either moonlight or sunlight, they'll both work since he's an Eevee rather than a Clefairy,"

"How exactly does it work anyway?" Vali wasn't very familiar with the move.

It was mostly due to how hard it was for any pokemon outside of the Cleffa-line to learn the move even if it was possible. Adding onto how rarely it was actually used even in Conference battles, it wasn't something that most trainers were even remotely prepared to deal with. Vali liked the idea of having a move that no one would be readily prepared to deal with outside of a select few trainers. Lt. Surge snorted as he probably guessed what was going through her mind, "Simple, a pokemon like Eevee stores the power somewhere inside of them like how a grass-type stores up sunlight for a Solar Beam only less of a one use kind of deal and without the whole being unable to move outside of special circumstances. Needless to say, it's a pretty damn hard move to go up against. If Eevee trains hard enough, he'll even be able to shatter both Protect and Light Screen though be careful of Reflect otherwise you'd be pretty damn screwed."

"So basically it's like Hyper Beam?" Vali asked feeling just a bit eager with Eevee looking a bit eager too.

"Yes, but it's a bit more limited since the pokemon using Stored Power doesn't exactly have unlimited space for that energy," Lt. Surge looked at the two in amusement, "And it's a lot like flexing a muscle,"

"Which means we'll have to train it," Vali looked down at Eevee, "Sound good?" Eevee nodded, "We'll figure out a schedule around it. I want to see the difference that sunlight and moonlight have on your energy,"

Eevee nodded with a determined look on his face. Lt. Surge clapped his hands, "Let's let Eevee rest, we should go check on your other pokemon."

* * *

By the time Lt. Surge was done with them, they were all exhausted and Vali was just a bit leery about doing it all over again at five. At the very least, it would only be for an hour and they'd be able to get dinner afterward. Vali returned her pokemon save for Vulpix and gave them to a Gym Trainer. Lt. Surge pointed her in the direction of a shower, "Just get rinsed off, Kid. You'll be doing it all over again later, so don't worry about getting in a real shower right now."

Vali only did a quick rinse since the water was almost icy cold and she could get it to heat up. She returned to the indoor training ground where Lt. Surge was waiting with a Gym Trainer and a rather pretty looking man. The Gym Trainer was one that she vaguely recognized from one of her past visits though she wasn't sure about the name. The man was rather feminine looking with a petite and slim build that probably got him bullied a lot when he was a kid. He had long almost to his ass caramel colored hair that coiled randomly near the ends. He had dark purple doe-like eyes and pale skin that probably burned horribly in summer. He wore a black full length duster that nearly brushed against the floor, a white dress shirt, a pair of dark blue jeans, a pair of black knee high boots with a heel, and a black pokeball belt sat on his waist. Rather than comment on just how pretty the guy was, she offered him a light smile as Vulpix peered at him curiously from her arms, "Hello, Sir. I'm Valkyrie Potter from Pallet Town though I prefer Vali."

The man's eyes gleamed with pleasure probably thinking she thought he might be a woman and if they'd passed one another on the side walk, she probably would've assumed he was. It was surprising to hear the rather rich baritone voice come out of his mouth, "It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Vali. My name is Rodrick Cross and I work with Lt. Surge on getting our abused pokemon ready to be adopted out. Today, we'll be working together."

"Rod is one of the best behavioral therapists that the League has to offer and one of my Cousins," Lt. Surge announced with a grin causing Vali's eyes to go a bit wide as Rodrick rolled his eyes, "His mother is a Joy,"

Which would explain why he's so feminine looking, Vali realized as she took a closer look at the man. Members of the Joy family almost always ended up quite feminine even if they weren't female, it also stood to reason that anyone related to them tended to go into medical related jobs even if they didn't become part of a pokemon center. Rather than comment on the obvious and likely earn the ire of a member of Lt. Surge's family, she asked the man, "Mr. Rodrick, may I ask if you specialize in a certain type of pokemon?"

Lt. Surge let out a low snort obviously having hoped she'd say something and get a show out of it. Rodrick looked pleased, "Just Rodrick, Miss. I don't specialize, but I have a tendency for psychic-types both for their talent at reading minds and because they can stop a patient from harming themselves without physical force being required."

"Just call me Vali then," Vali replied as she wondered at his team, "Do you have a Chansey or a Blissey?"

"A Blissey. She's actually my partner," Rodrick smiled as he reached for a pokeball from his belt, "Would you like to meet her?"

"Yes!" Vali grinned since the Chansey-line were awesome and a non-fire-type that she definitely hoped to get at some point.

Rodrick chuckled and hit the release button on the pokeball once he grabbed it. A Blissey appeared and promptly gifted her trainer a warm hug earning a laugh from the man. Rodrick hugged her back, "Bliss, a trainer we're going to be working with wants to meet you."

The Blissey turned towards her and promptly squealed before racing towards Vali. Vali and Vulpix promptly found themselves being hugged to death by a very adorable pink pokemon. Bliss the Blissey let go after a few moments and promptly stole Vulpix from her to coo at the adorable fox. Rather than feel offended, the fire-type master-in-training took out her camera and captured the cute sight before rescuing her rather confused little one from the affectionate happiness pokemon. Blissey pouted at her earning a laugh from the trainer, "He's far too adorable and fluffy for his own good, isn't he?" Bliss nodded with a bright smile, "My names Vali, Bliss. This is my little one, Vulpix. He doesn't have a nickname just yet since he's a little too young, but he will eventually. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Bliss let out a squealing trill in agreement before bouncing back over to Rodrick who was laughing warmly. Rodrick patted his partner on the arm, "You'll get to play with the little one later, Bliss," Rodrick looked at Vali with a pleased smile, "My partner is a very affectionate pokemon and a very good judge of character."

"I don't mind," Vali walked over as she grinned at the man while feeling glad that she'd apparently passed a test, "I've been wanting to meet a Blissey for awhile now,"

Lt. Surge cleared his throat, "I've got to get going, so Rod get down to business since I'm going to be grabbing the kid at five for another training session. Kid, your pokemon'll be returned in an hour. I've got to go tear into some tourists and hopefully get an actual challenge."

"Right," Rodrick grimaced a bit, "Try not to crush too many dreams today,"

Lt. Surge just smirked at his cousin before patting Vali's shoulder and heading off. Vali called out, "Good luck!"

Rodrick shook his head as Lt. Surge let out a bark of laughter, "I don't need luck with this group of babies!"

The door shut behind Lt. Surge and Vali looked at Rodrick curiously, "So how is this going to work?"

"Follow me to the facility where we keep those that are ready to be adopted or close enough," Rodrick answered as he began to follow after Lt. Surge to leave the room.

* * *

Before leaving the gym, Vali was made to sign a psychic contract basically stating that she wouldn't talk about it or disclose the location to anyone without League authorization. She understood and didn't mind signing the contract because it was to protect the pokemon within the facility from being harmed again. She walked about two blocks from the gym to a set of office buildings that worked as the local Ranger/League branch that every major city/town had. After signing in with Rodrick flashing a badge and a visitors pass being gifted to her, they got into an elevator and began heading downward. She set Vulpix down since he was beginning to squirm a bit, "Rodrick, how did you get into this kind of job?"

"I've always been good at figuring out how people behave and wanted to help everyone," Rodrick explained as Vali began checking over her camera, "My mother saw my gift and decided to help me find the perfect job not long after I got my Happiny. Together with Bliss and the pokemon that I began to gather together, I managed to find my perfect job and 24 years later, here I am," He looked at her curiously, "What about you, Vali? Do you have a job in mind? Surge mentioned becoming an Elite Four and a fire-type mastery,"

Vali looked up at Rodrick with a slight shrug, "I really do want to become a member of the Elite Four someday. If that doesn't work out, I'll stick with the data collecting job for Professor Oak. My photographing will probably stay a hobby."

"Any other plans?" Rodrick asked with a raised-eyebrow.

Vali shook her head, "Not really, I don't see myself becoming a desk jockey. I don't really want to become a Ranger though I know I'd have a place as one if I wanted it since my godfather is one," She looked at Vulpix who walked towards Bliss, "If I had to, I'd become an Ace."

"So you like the idea of having a job that offers freedom to you," Rodrick summarized as Bliss picked up Vulpix and began to chitter happily at the little fox, "That isn't a bad thing, it'll be dangerous though,"

"We work with beings that can spam elemental attacks and kill us if they so desired," Vali stated in a bland tone.

Rodrick let out a light laugh, "True."

"But to be honest, I don't mind the danger especially since I know my pokemon will have my back," Vali smiled as Vulpix licked Bliss' cheek, "They're family after all,"

"Family, huh," Rodrick smiled softly.

"Mhmm," Vali hummed lightly before showing Rodrick her camera, "This'll be fine, right? My godfather gave it to me as a gift,"

"Yeah," Rodrick looked over the digital camera for a few seconds, "I'm surprised you're bringing that on your journey,"

"I have a case for it," It was the only reason Vali decided to bring it along.

The elevator dinged and Bliss handed Vulpix back to Vali. They got out and Rodrick led the way through a sterile looking hallway to a metal door. Rodrick placed his badge onto the scanner and entered a code. A smooth female voice echoed through the hallway, "Welcome back Dr. Cross and guest."

The door slid open with a soft hiss as the faintest sound of gears moving reached Vali's ears. Rodrick led the way inside to reveal what looked like a modified hospital ward mixed with a pre-school playroom. A few people were in the room either playing with a pokemon or checking it over. One of them looked up, "Welcome back, Dr. Cross!"

A similar statement came from the others inside the room. Rodrick smiled at them all, "Hello, everyone! I would like you to meet, Valkyrie Potter. Vali here is going to be taking pictures of our adoptable pokemon. I think you'll all remember the Eevee from Viridian that ended up with Professor Oak?" Everyone nodded while shooting Vali curious looks, "She's the one that save him and is currently his trainer."

"It's a pleasure to meet you all," Vali offered them all a bright smile, "Please call me Vali. This is my Vulpix, he's around two weeks old,"

"Adorable!" One of the female workers squealed.

Rodrick led her over to a section in the play area, "With this area work?"

"It should be fine," Vali set Vulpix down, "Don't wander,"

Vulpix settled down beside her feet as Rodrick said, "Get settled, I'll go get our first pokemon and the list of the ones you'll be photographing. We'll take a break in an hour and a half for lunch."

* * *

Vali took ten photo's of each pokemon with some being a close up and others being a bit further. She took some photos with certain pokemon paired up. She also took some with the various volunteers that worked for some of the more relaxed branches of the Ranger Corps/League. Some of the photo's contained the pokemon all playing together. She made sure it all looked as natural as possible while also looking cute to encourage people to look into adopting the less physically appealing pokemon. Many of the pokemon bore physical scars of their past abuse, they carried them with pride.

Almost all of them were a bit timid including a rather small Meowth that was blind in one eye, Vali tried her best to get each of them comfortable with her which worked for the most part. One of the Rattata apparently decided that it was in love with Vulpix's tail and attempted to chew on it only for Vulpix to release his first ever Ember which was more soot than anything else. The Rattata got away with some singed fur and a few missing whiskers. Vulpix decided to curl around her shoulders which wasn't that bad though he wasn't going to be able to do that in a few more weeks. Needless to say, the various pokemon decided not to bug the fire breathing fox after that despite his new position.

At 12:30, everyone took a break with Vali's pokemon being returned to her. They ate their food before deciding to all take a nap with Vulpix joining them. One of the volunteer rangers asked, "So Vali, did Sirius ever manage to get you that Houndour egg?"

"Houndour egg?" Rodrick wasn't the only one looking at Vali in confusion.

"Siri, my godfather, made a bet with me," Vali explained as she ran her fingers across a sleeping Pippin's fur head, "He bet that I couldn't beat Pewter with two fire-types. If I lost, I'd have to let him pull a few pranks without a single counter. If I won, he'd have his partner, Regulus, breed during the next mating season and give me one of the Houndour eggs that came from it. This was before I got Vulpix's egg,"

"How long until it hatches?" The volunteer asked her curiously.

"About two months if not a bit longer, Vulpix will thankfully be out of the baby stage by then and won't need as much guidance," Vali picked up her soda with a smile.

"Two eggs in your first year as a trainer is pretty damn lucky," One of the volunteer Ace's commented, "I only ever got a single egg and that was during my third year,"

"Trust me when I say that I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop," Vali wasn't looking forward to see what happened when the luck scales reversed and she got hit with bad luck.

* * *

Vali was inwardly muttering about stupid Potter luck as she stared down the barrel of a gun. She'd just left Lt. Surge's gym and was heading to the pokemon center to get her team checked over when not even three blocks away a mugger decided to make her his target. Everything had been fine until he surprisingly drew a gun. Considering the fact that guns were strictly controlled by the League and barely had enough to equip the police force, she was allowed to be surprised at the sight of it. The person holding it towards her had a snarling Raticate beside him that looked like it might have rabies. The man sneered at her and held out a bag, "Pokeballs and valuables in the bag unless you want to be shot, Brat."

Vali tried to think of a way out of this without anyone getting hurt. She wasn't giving up her pokemon or anything that belonged to her. She eyed the gun wondering if it actually had any bullets in it. She felt a slight prickling sensation before a slight unfamiliar voice spoke in her mind, " _Friend-Vali, why do you feel fear?"_

Inwardly relieved to hear Steven's Metagross speaking in her mind, Vali tried to be polite, ' _A man is attempting to threaten me with a gun and a rabid looking Raticate. Considering the fact that I'm not sure if the gun actually has bullets or not, I'm quite unsure what to do.'_

 _"Stall,"_ Metagross ordered before falling silent.

Vali refocused as she heard the safety on the gun click off and the man snarled, "Are you an idiot?! Give me your pokeballs and valuables!"

How do you stall someone trying to mug you? Vali took a small step back as she said, "You really don't want to do this. Do you know the trouble you'll get in with the League?"

"Fuck the League!" The man snarled at her as the gun shook just the slightest bit, "Fuck them! Those arrogant son of a bitch fat cats don't give a fuck about anyone so long as their pockets get lined,"

Is this guy serious? Vali knew there were corrupt people in the League. It was actually something to be expected with any type of government even one that majorly catered to pokemon. She glanced towards the Raticate that was slowly beginning to edge forward while mentally cursing the fact that none of her pokemon were exactly in a state to battle right now. She was very glad that Vulpix was inside his pokeball right now too otherwise things would be a lot worse. Taking a deep breath to keep herself calm and hope to hell the mugger didn't actually try to shoot her, she said, "Not all of them are like that."

The mugger snorted, "Kids like you would never understand. Now give me your valuables and pokeballs!"

"Technically, pokeballs are valuables," Vali backed up another step as the Raticate took a step forward, "By the way, your Raticate looks like it has rabies. You might want to take it to Nurse Jo-"

"Shut the hell up!" The mugger roared at her, "I won't ask again! Give me your valuables and pokeballs right now!"

Metagross spoke as the mugger steadied the gun, " _Duck and be ready to run, Friend-Vali."_

Vali didn't hesitate to follow that order and quickly ducked close to the ground. The mugger began to snarl at her as his Raticate jumped forward only to be frozen in a psychic hold. Vali quickly backpedaled as she twisted to get out of the gun's sight line which proved to be a good idea since it went off seconds later. She felt a searing pain rip across her right side like someone decided it take a red hot piece of metal and press it there. She forced herself to ignore the pain as she ran toward where Steven was standing with Ryner looking more than a little angry. She slammed into her traveling partner, "Steven!"

"Vali, are you hurt?" Steven asked as Ryner had Stella knock the mugger and Raticate out.

"M-my side," Vali could feel herself trembling, "I-I t-think the b-bullet just g-grazed me,"

"Steven, get Vali to the hospital and have them check her out. I'll be taking these two to the police," Ryner looked more than a little pissed off.

Steven nodded as he called out Claydol, "Metagross, help him out."

* * *

Steven looked up as Sirius and Lt. Surge entered the waiting room. The grim animagus immediately making a bee-line towards the steel-type master-in-training, "Steve-"

"I don't have all the information, but Vali's going to be fine according to the doctor's thoughts," Steven cut the worried man off, "The police are going to be speaking with her once the doctor is done treating the injury,"

Lt. Surge frowned darkly, "How the hell could this have even happened? Not even a few blocks from my fucking gym."

Steven frowned at the Gym Leader feeling no small amount of irritation at the man. Sirius turned to the Gym Leader with a scowl, "Maybe it wouldn't have if you didn't rely on your reputation to scare people away."

Lt. Surge bristled in a way that reminded Steven of the man's Jolteon, "Maybe you should shut your trap, Black."

Before a fight could start, Steven cut in, "Sirius, I'm surprised you made it here so quickly."

"Professor Oak was very helpful with lending his Alakazam for me to use once alerted to what happened," Sirius answered as he forced himself to take a deep breath, "Damn it, of all the things to happen not even a day after she leaves home again. Fuck, we were worried about pokemon attacking her not humans,"

"Sometimes humans are the more dangerous creatures," A cool voice replied from nearby, "I assume you're Mister Black, Miss' Potter's legal guardian?"

They all turned to find a doctor standing nearby with a clipboard. It was the same one that had been treating Vali causing Steven to straighten out of his slight slouch. Sirius nodded as he focused on the clipboard, "Yes. Is Vali alright?"

"She is currently very shaken up," The doctor answered as Steven set a hand on Metagross' pokeball, "The bullet thankfully only grazed her side. While I did have to give her a few stitches, the wound should heal fairly quickly thanks to the modified potions I used. Mister Stone, I am aware that you're worried for Miss Potter, but please inform your psychic-types to leave my head alone,"

Steven offered the doctor an apologetic look while dropping his hand, "Of course, Doctor."

The doctor inclined his head while Metagross and Claydol withdrew themselves from the man's mind, "Thank you. Now, I am prescribing Miss Potter some antibiotics as a precaution against any infections that might develop. I expect Miss Potter to come back in a few days to have the wound checked over and the stitches removed."

"Of course, can we go see her now?" Sirius requested as he took the prescription from the doctor.

"Yes though you will likely have to wait outside the room while she is being questioned," The doctor shook his head, "For one so young to be forced into a situation like this, what is the world coming to?"

After giving them the room number and writing up Vali's discharge papers, the doctor headed off to see his other patients. Steven looked at the two men and cleared his throat when Sirius opened his mouth, "Leave any arguments outside, Vali has been through enough tonight and none of the hospital residents need to be stressed out."

Without waiting for either of the adults to follow, Steven headed towards the room that Vali was in. He was thankful Metagross had a clear picture of the room and how to get there since hospitals could be far too confusing. Metagross spoke softly in his mind, " _Master Steven, do you wish for me to monitor Friend-Vali's dreams tonight?"_

Steven mentally nodded to his oldest pokemon, " _Yes and for a little while after tonight as well, I have a feeling she's not going to be sleeping easily for awhile or at least, until we're out of the city."_

Metagross gave a mental hum before falling silent and Steven knew he was once again contemplating the enigma that was Vali. The amusement from that thought helped calm his nerves allowing the Devon Corp heir to focus on the here and now.

* * *

Vali watched as the two police officers left and slipped off the bed feeling her side ache a bit despite the numbing solution that the doctor had used. She internally mused that it must be wearing off which wasn't exactly a good thing. The door opened to reveal Steven who quickly made his way over to her, "Vali, are you...?"

Steven trailed off and Vali offered him a slightly weak smile, "I'm trying not to break down right now," She swallowed thickly, "C-can we head to the pokemon center now?"

"Of course," Steven held out a hand to her, "Sirius is here as is Surge,"

"Really?" Vali was more than a little surprised to hear that.

Vali hadn't thought Sirius would be able to come since he was due to be recalled by the Ranger Corps any day. Though she probably should've known, Sirius pretty much dropped everything when it came to her. Lt. Surge was a surprise since last she saw, Lt. Surge had been busy with Rodrick and Monica. Then again, he'd probably been informed that something like this had happened since he was pretty much in charge of all Law Enforcement inside Vermilion City being the Gym Leader. Him rushing to check on her felt nice, she hadn't thought they were that close. Using the warmth and happiness the thought brought, she pushed back the need to break down even further and took Steven hand. She was grateful to have something to hold onto since it helped ground her. Steven squeezed her hand as he led her out of the room, "Yeah. Sirius got Professor Oak to lend him Alakazam though I'm not too sure about Surge. Vali, is it alright if Metagross monitors your dreams tonight?"

Vali hesitated for a moment before nodding feeling a bit relieved, "Yes."

Steven squeezed her hand again as they left the room and began heading down the hallway.

* * *

It took Vali over three hours of arguing with Sirius to keep him from trying to drag her back to Pallet Town and to prevent him from fighting with Lt. Surge. Lt. Surge was already pissed off about the fact something like this had happened in his city and that she'd been the one to bring it to his attention. Keeping the two adults from fighting quickly exhausted the already stressed out fire-type master-in-training, the two men didn't really seem to notice much. By the time the two left with Sirius promising to come back in the morning, she was ready to collapse, but forced herself to stay awake. She took one of the antibiotics that the doctor had prescribed for her, ate something from the cafeteria, picked her pokemon up from Nurse Joy while thanking Steven for having them seen to after the doctor sent him from the room, and informed them all about what happened. Needless to say, they were not happy in the least and were heavily tempted to go after the person that had attempted to mug her.

After calming them down and finally letting herself breakdown, Vali finally ended the day by giving into her exhaustion. Steven woke her up as images of the mugger and his rabid Raticate began swirling through her mind. Steven didn't try to ask her about the nightmare and instead talked about the things he'd gone over that day until she'd fallen asleep again only this time it was a restful sleep without any dreams.

* * *

Lt. Surge looked at Vali with just a small amount of shock when she walked into the indoor training ground, "Kid, I'm surprised you're here given what happened."

Vali shrugged as she released her pokemon and set them to training, "If I let something like yesterday break me down, the stuff I went through and survived before will mean nothing."

"Alright then," Lt. Surge shook his head, "You'll work on strategizing and figuring out how to use your favorite strategy with those two," He pointed to Smaug and Balto, "I'll be doing some personal training with Elrond. In thirty minutes, you should go oversee everyone's training before returning to what you're doing,"

"Right," Vali nodded feeling glad that Lt. Surge was letting her try to make things as normal as possible, "What about Eevee?"

"He'll be working with Jolteon," Lt. Surge answered as he gave her a look of understanding, "Now get to work,"

Vali wasn't surprised when Sirius barged into the indoor training ground much to Lt. Surge's annoyance not long after she started working on her strategies. She'd been expecting him to come by at some point today to check on her, but she would admit to expecting him earlier. Like closer to dawn, she guessed that Delia had probably convinced him to wait until a more reasonable time which the fire-type master-in-training was very grateful for. She did have to wonder how the man knew she'd be here, but supposed Steven had probably said something. She put down her pokedex as Sirius shouted rather unnecessarily, "What the hell is going on here?!"

"Training obviously," Lt. Surge glowered at Sirius looking quite ticked to be interrupted in the middle of explaining something to Elrond who looked just as annoyed as the Gym Leader, "What are you doing here, Black?"

"Checking on _my_ Goddaughter," Sirius replied with a growl as Vali wondered why he was stressing the 'my', "What the hell are you doing?"

A part of Vali was tempted to see where this went, but the rest of her wasn't especially since Lt. Surge's pokemon were giving the grim animagus the evil eye. None of them appreciated the way Sirius was treating their trainer. Considering just how nasty electric-type pokemon could be despite their generally more cheerful dispositions, the man was likely to find himself in quite a bit of pain via electrical attacks if he didn't change his tone. Clearing her throat, Vali said, "Surge is helping me train my pokemon," Sirius opened his mouth, "Siri, I want things to be as normal as possible today. Please just stop."

Sirius' mouth closed and he seemed to take a closer look at Vali. She saw him wince likely seeing how tired and drawn she was. Despite the more restful sleep she'd had after Steven woke her up from the nightmare, she was still very tired and in pain despite the graze on her side being closed up. The antibiotic that the doctor had prescribed had left the fire-type master-in-training both sleepy and nauseous which she would be mentioning to the physician next time she saw him. Sirius ran a hand through his hair as he sighed, "Sorry, Pup. Yesterday just scared the hell out of me."

"Me too," Vali offered him a strained smile as she picked her pokedex back up, "Which is why I want things to be normal while I work up the energy needed to mentally right myself and not suffer a break down,"

Which was actually quite hard to avoid when not distracted by doing something, Vali knew it wasn't the best way to deal with her problems, but it worked for the most part. It was her best coping mechanism which was better than just wallowing in some corner and flinching at every passing shadow. She refocused on what was going on in the world around her when Sirius asked, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Lt. Surge snorted, "No, we've got it all handled Black."

Sirius scowled at Lt. Surge causing Vali to sigh deeply wondering what was going on with the animosity. She knew there would be some considering the fact that she'd nearly been mugged and actually been shot in the city that Lt. Surge was supposed to be protecting. But this level of animosity went beyond that, the question was why? She eyed the two with a small grimace before asking Sirius, "How is Delia?"

"Worried about you same as Professor Oak," Sirius answered as he walked over to the bench she was sitting on, "It was scary getting a call from Steven saying you were in the hospital after nearly being mugged," He offered her a hopeful look, "We'd all feel better if you came home for a little while longer,"

"If I do that, I'd probably end up never leaving again," They both knew Vali was lying when she said that because staying in Pallet Town for a month had left the girl restless in ways she had experienced before.

Seeing everyone had been nice, Vali would love to do it all again at some point, but staying in Pallet Town for longer than a month wasn't something she'd be able to do anymore. Going on this journey had opened her up to a part of herself that had been locked up tight by the Dursleys and the wizarding world, the part of her that desired to wander the earth and discover new things would never let her be comfortable with staying in one place for long now that it'd finally been able to breath. Sure, she'd end up finding a place to settle down eventually, but that was in the future once she was older. Sirius let out a low chuckle, "Lying doesn't suit you, Pup."

Vali nodded as she fiddled with her pokedex feeling glad that Lt. Surge was letting them have this moment, "Siri, don't get me wrong, I do kind of want to come back to Pallet Town for a little while, but I can't," She looked at her pokemon who were training even harder than normal given what had happened yesterday and Vulpix who was sticking close to her despite not understanding anything other than the fact something was wrong, "I know that it would probably help me, but I can't go back. Not when I'm scared that I'll start making excuses about why I have to stay. Some part of me thinks that if I go back to Pallet Town, I'd be quitting and rendering everything that I've done to this point moot."

"A part of you believes that you're a weakling and nothing up to this point will have mattered if you don't keep moving forward," Sirius finished her line of thought when she'd stopped to think, "I get it, Pup. I'm not exactly happy about it, but I get it," He shook his head, "I won't try to drag you home, but please call us if you need to talk,"

"I will," Vali promised him.

Sirius probably wouldn't stop worrying no matter what Vali said.

* * *

Sirius stayed with Vali the whole time Lt. Surge had allotted to help her in the morning leaving the Gym Leader foul tempered for reason that the fire-type master-in-training really wasn't too sure about. The man shot a glare towards Sirius while she was handing her pokemon over to the Gym Trainer that would be taking them to get healed up. She cleared her throat as Sirius met that glare with one of his own, "So what's on the agenda today?"

"Rodrick wants you to help him out with the adoptable pokemon today," Lt. Surge answered without breaking the glaring match.

"Okay," Vali heard the door open and spotted Rodrick as he walked inside, "Do I need my camera?"

"Not today," Rodrick answered as he eyed the two glaring men with a small amount of amusement, "How are you today?"

"Trying my best to be okay after yesterday," Vali admitted earning a light nod from Rodrick.

"If you want to talk about it, I'm all ears," Rodrick cleared his throat breaking the staring contest, "Mister Black, it's good to see you again."

"Doctor Cross," Sirius looked a bit pale making Vali wonder if Rodrick was the demon therapist that her godfather had complained about before, "N-nice to see you too,"

Rodrick's smile was all teeth and gums making Vali wonder what exactly Sirius had done to piss the man off. Though given the man's more feminine features and body type, she could probably make a guess and mentally shook her head at Sirius' antics. More than likely, he'd hit on Rodrick before the man could even say a word and probably protested quite a bit about the man's actual gender despite the voice. In any case, Sirius likely deserved whatever 'torture' Rodrick subjected him to, "How have you been since our last session ended?"

Sirius opened him mouth before closing it without a sound. Vali looked at her godfather with some concern before saying, "Siri proposed to Delia."

"Oh?" Rodrick's smile turned gentle as he took his eyes off Sirius and focused on Vali, "That's excellent,"

Lt. Surge cleared his throat looking more than a little amused about how pale his cousin had made Sirius, "I'm going to get to work. Kid, you and your team are off the hook for tonight's training session. I've got things to do."

Vali inwardly groaned as she tried to figure out what she'd do at that point while outwardly nodding to Lt. Surge, "Alright."

Lt. Surge patted her shoulder before heading off. Rodrick smiled at Vali, "Shall we get going?"

"Yeah," Vali rubbed between Vulpix's ears as she moved to follow Rodrick.

Sirius finally spoke as they were leaving the indoor training ground, "Wait up!"

Rodrick looked at Sirius with a raised eyebrow, "May I ask where you plan on going, Mister Black?"

"I want to spend time with my Goddaughter," Sirius answered as they began walking out of the gym together, "Is that wrong?"

"No, but you do not have the clearance for where we're going," Rodrick replied earning a frown from Sirius, "Vali has been granted temporary clearance. If you had gone through the training that had been offered, I wouldn't have had a problem with you tagging along. Seeing as you do not and I am not able to grant you temporary clearance due to not being affiliated with the Ranger Union, you are not able to accompany us,"

Vali was a little surprised at the fact she'd been granted any form of clearance since she hadn't done much for the League outside of the whole forest fire incident. Then again, Professor Oak and Lt. Surge had probably pulled some strings to get that clearance especially since she'd exposed the whole Durant issue. She pushed down her surprise to ask, "Rodrick, you aren't affiliated with the Ranger Union?"

"No, I'm strictly League affiliated, but Surge is affiliated with the Ranger Union since he was one until he turned sixteen. One of the best, but he found his true calling with being a pokemon trainer," Rodrick answered making both Sirius and Vali look at him in shock, "It's one of the main reasons he's been granted his position with abused pokemon,"

Which actually made sense, a former pokemon ranger would know how to deal with pokemon in just about any situation. Abused pokemon wouldn't be that difficult to deal with especially if you were used to befriending pokemon without a styler which had only really been given to all Rangers fifteen years ago. Vali's respect for Lt. Surge promptly went up while she began forming questions that she'd be asking him at some point soon with this new information. Sirius let out a small grumble, "I guess I need to go bug Lt. Surge."

"Siri, you could head home and spend time with Delia," Vali suggested earning a slightly hurt look from the Grim animagus, "It's not that I don't like spending time with you and I'm grateful that you've taken the time to come see me. I really am, but you only have a few more days until you're pulled back to duty. Shouldn't you be spending time with your fiancee?"

Sirius frowned at her, "Are you sure, Pup?"

"I'm sure," Vali offered him a weak grin, "Just tell her that I'll be calling later on via my pokenav,"

After quite a few assurances and promises to call home, Sirius left via Alakazam allowing Vali and Rodrick to get going. Rodrick looked at her as he said, "You're holding up well despite what happened yesterday."

"Mostly because I don't want to worry anyone," Vali admitted as they walked together, "I've also been through worse. At least with this, I knew Steven was coming to help me," She glanced at Rodrick, "So what exactly are we doing today?"

"Mostly getting the pokemon bathed and groomed," Rodrick answered not seeming to mind the change in conversation, "You'll mostly be doing the grooming,"

"Sounds like fun," Vali genuinely enjoyed grooming pokemon and making them feel good.

Not to mention, it would give her something to do that required focus and soothed her nerves.

* * *

Even with the modified potion that had been used on Vali and her magics natural propensity to heal her, it had taken a full week for the graze from the bullet to heal. The scar that had been left behind was quite tender, but that would fade after awhile according to the doctor that had been treating her. The nightmares from the incident were still present, but that likely wouldn't start to fade until after leaving Vermilion. Lt. Surge had 'helpfully' informed her that the would-be mugger had also been a druggie and wanted for several charges that included pokephilia leaving the fire-type master-in-training quite disturbed. The Raticate was going to be placed under evaluation in an attempt to see if it could be rehabilitated after the Joys were through with it. Medically speaking, it was unlikely the poor thing would survive since it's former trainer hadn't taken very good care of it and even subjected it to multiple drugs.

When the time came to leave Vermilion, Lt. Surge gave Vali two rather priceless TMs and a nice nest egg of money she'd be putting away for a rainy day. The TMs were one use for Zap Cannon and Rest. He also stole her pokenav to input both the number for his gym and personal phone-line. He gruffly informed her to call him if any of her pokemon needed help learning electric-type moves. Rodrick also gave Vali his personal number and told her to call if she needed anything. Ryner told her to stay safe while Stella cheerfully wished her luck in the pokemon league. With that, she left Vermilion city behind with Steven and their pokemon after getting supplies for their trip to Saffron.

* * *

Steven looked at Vali when she stopped walking once Vermilion City was firmly behind them. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. When she let it out, he was surprised to watch as if almost all the tension in her body drained out. When she opened her eyes, she looked at Steven with a light smile and eyes almost as bright as they had been before she'd almost been mugged, "Sorry about that."

"It's fine," Steven smiled lightly, "Feels good to be on the move again, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," Vali nodded with a light grin.

Vali released Vulpix who was finally starting to lose the white bits of fur. The young fire-type looked around at the area in surprise and confusion. She also released Balto and Smaug who looked around with remembrance in their eyes. Steven spoke as Vali bent down to pet Vulpix, "Do you want to walk or run?"

"Walking for now," Vali answered as she scratched behind the growing fox pokemon's ears, "Vulpix, do you want to walk beside me for now?"

Vulpix yipped and wagged his tail earning a smile from his mother figure. Vali stood up fully and began walking with Steven quickly moving to follow. He wasn't going to release any of his pokemon right now since none of them really appreciated the cold too much and Vali's pokemon were more than enough to ward off any temperamental wild pokemon. He noted that the area was recovering quite nicely from the fire and even a few signs of new pokemon having moved in though he wasn't sure what they were. As they walked, he commented, "I was expecting the snow to be a bit more prevalent."

"A few of the local pokemon probably know Sunny Day and are using it to keep the snow from getting too thick," Vali answered as she curled her fingers through Balto's fur, "Hey, Steven?"

"Yeah?" He looked at her curiously.

Vali smiled a bit shyly at him, "Thanks for helping me with my nightmares. I know you probably haven't been sleeping very well because of me and it means a lot that you're willing to help me out.'

"You don't have to thank me," Steven shook his head at her as he wondered what brought this up, "You're my friend and traveling partner after all. Besides, I had more paperwork to do than I thought and wasn't going to sleep much anyway,"

"Still, thank you," Vali replied in a slightly firm tone.

Steven inwardly shook his head, "We should be in Saffron a week or less if we're traveling using our pokemon. Other than the whole mental shield thing Sabrina offered and getting advice to train Elrond's psychic-type side, what do you want to do?"

"I'm not sure," Vali admitted as they walked, "I'm going to be spending a lot of time training everyone since we're battling Sabrina. I don't know as much about Saffron as some cities mostly because there aren't very many fire-types around it,"

Chuckling a bit, Steven teased her lightly, "Are fire-types all you think about?"

"No, I think about a lot of things," Vali protested with a mock pout, "It's not my fault fire-type pokemon are awesome,"

Smaug let out a roar of agreement and grinned at his trainer while Balto puffed his chest up with a loud bark. Vulpix looked a bit confusion about why both of his elders were reacting like that. Vali and Steven shared at laugh at the two.

* * *

Riding on Balto's back was as amazing as with Celina, it brought Vali a sense of peace that she'd only ever thought would come from flying. There was a sense of otherness and power that hadn't been present when she'd ridden Celina for the first time, the movements of Balto's powerful muscles shifting beneath his skin and fur left the fire-type master-in-training almost breathless. This was an Arcanine, the only pokemon that could even hope to match the legendary dogs when it came to running. The sheer heat coming off of his body ensured that she barely felt the cold wind nipping at them and the smoothness of his gait ensured she'd be able to ride him without much complaint as long as he was able to run. Keeping a grip on Balto was easy, the heat from his body and the softness of his fur kept any ache in her fingers at bay.

Smaug flew overhead beside Skarmory who was carrying Steven. When he began to lag, Vali would return him and they'd stop to take a break once a viable clearing was found. It was fairly good endurance training for her starter since he was a bit more vulnerable to the cold compared to most fire-types due to the diluted dragon typing in his DNA. She kept a close eye on him as well as Vulpix who was currently adding to the heat against the front of her body due to being inside her shirt. He hadn't wanted to be returned when they'd started this and she hadn't had a very good idea of how she'd keep him from falling off Balto. Steven ended up suggesting to keep him underneath her jacket. While it was a good solution, Vulpix had decided that he wanted skin contact and to be close to the feather leading to his current place beneath her shirt. Awkward as it might be, it was doable and not as uncomfortable as one might think though that was mostly due to the fact she wasn't starting to develop a chest just yet.

* * *

Vali leaned against Balto's warm body with Steven as they stopped for a lunch break and a bit of a rest. Empress had shoved herself underneath Balto's head to get away from the cold. Pele and Pippin were settled together beside Smaug who was carefully keeping the Numel from getting too cold. Eevee was curled up on top of Balto's side with Vulpix and Elrond. Steven's pokemon had pretty much fled to their pokeballs the moment they could save for Skarmory and Mawile who were actually enjoying the snow. Claydol didn't mind it nor did Metagross though the two had decided to stick to their pokeballs for now. She jolted a bit when her pokenav rang and quickly pulled it from her pocket, "Hell-"

"Vali!" Professor Oak nearly shouted much to the shock of everyone in the clearing, "Your Vulpix is a King!"

"Yeah," Vali offered him a sheepish smile, "I apologize for not informing you earlier, but it slipped my mind with everything going on," She looked at him in concern as she noticed how sleep deprived he was, "Professor, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Professor Oak waved off her concern, "I can't believe your Vulpix is a carrier of the King gene,"

"Everyone was pretty surprised," Vali shifted a bit and winced a little as the skin around her newest scar tugged a bit.

For all that she might be lucky, Vali's bad luck could be just as bad sometimes. She refocused on Professor Oak as he asked, "Vali, could you document Vulpix's growth for me? With how rare the King gene is, we have no idea just how it affects the pokemon other than their increased growth and the subtle power increase as well."

"No problem, Professor," Vali had decided to do so before talking to the professor since she knew he'd ask that, "Professor, aren't the Alolan totem pokemon carriers of the King gene as well?"

"Not quite," Professor Oak shook his head as Steven gave her a slightly confused look, "The totem pokemon of Alola are abnormalities. My cousin Samson's been studying them for years alongside various other pokemon professors such as Professor Kukui," Professor Oak fell into what his lecture mode, "The totem pokemon of Alola start out as regular pokemon, but upon the passing of their predecessor gain what we, in the scientific community, tentatively term as the totem aura. No one is quite sure how it is passed on or even what causes the newest totem pokemon to gain the aura. When the new totem pokemon gains it's aura, it begins to rapidly change via increased stats, size, and weight,"

"Basically making it like a King, but not," Vali summed up.

"Just so," Professor Oak nodded to her, "However, it also gains some new abilities that no other pokemon of it's species King gene or not has. The ability to find Z-Crystals as well as find those worthy of using them. There is also some thought that the Legendary island guardians play a part in all this, but we cannot be sure since it's rare that they show themselves to anyone,"

"That would explain why they're not called Kings by the locals," Vali muttered softly.

"Anyway," Professor Oak shook his head lightly, "I'll see if I can get into contact with Lorelei,"

"The newest Elite Four member?" Vali clarified though Lorelei technically wasn't new since she'd been a member of the Elite Four since the current champion had taken his place and been sworn in, "Why do you say that?"

"One of her pokemon, a Dewgong to be precise, is one of the few known Kings currently alive," Professor Oak replied as he fiddled with some papers on his desk, "You'll need her help in order to find ways to feed Vulpix once he gets older and starts battling since King pokemon tend to eat quite a bit. Granted, it wouldn't be as bad as say a Dragonite king or a Tyranitar. It'll still be a bit hard,"

Vali inwardly winced at that thought and admitted that it would probably be a very good idea while hoping Vulpix didn't end up becoming a picky eater, "Thank you, Professor."

"It's no problem," Professor Oak waved her off, "Now, I should probably let you go. Are you heading to Saffron?"

"Yes, we should be there in a couple days rather than a week since I'm riding Balto and Steven is riding Skarmory," Vali answered and looked towards Steven for confirmation.

"Did you need something from us, Professor?" Steven asked after giving her a light nod.

Professor Oak shook his head, "Not at all though Steven, has Lileep evolved yet?"

"No, but he's getting fairly close," Steven had been a bit too busy to battle anyone.

Professor Oak went to say something when the sound of something heavy slamming into one of the filing cabinets filled the air, "Oh dear, I really need to get better doors."

"Is something wrong, Professor?" Vali asked in concern.

"Just some of the younger rock-types currently in my care playing around," Professor Oak sighed deeply and shook his head, "Safe travels you two,"

After a few goodbyes, Professor Oak hung up and Vali sighed softly, "I really hope Terra wasn't involved with that," She stood up and stretched carefully after pocketing her pokenav, "So ready to get moving?"

"It would probably be for the best," Steven stood up as well while Vali began recalling her pokemon, "We should be able to travel for another four hours before we should be worried about setting up camp,"

"Sounds good," Vali finished recalling everyone save for Balto, Smaug, and Vulpix, "Ready to go you three?"

They all nodded as Smaug began to stretch his wings and Balto stood up. Vulpix jumped off Balto before the larger fire-type fully got up and walked over to Vali. Once Balto was standing and everything was packed away again, Vali picked up Vulpix and set him onto Balto's back before climbing up when her oldest pokemon bent down to make things easier on her. Once she was settled, Vulpix quickly wormed his way back into the position he'd been in before their break. Steven pulled himself onto Skarmory's back after checking his saddle and asked, "Ready to go?"

"Yup," Vali confirmed after digging her fingers into Balto's scruff and Smaug let out a small roar.

"Then let's be off," Steven said as Skarmory and Smaug got ready to take off.

* * *

Reaching Saffron city, Vali could appreciate how the rather large city looked when covered with snow. She got off Balto's back and returned him along with Smaug once the Charizard had landed. Steven landed and returned Skarmory after thanking her for the ride. They looked at the city then at one another. Steven waved a hand, "Shall we?"

"Might as well, I could really use a shower and warm meal," Vali took the first step towards the city.

 **Updates: Once a month so long as my job allows.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997: This chapter was interesting to write though my muse decided to play around with her pokemon rather than help me in a few places, Vali can be such a brat sometimes.**

 **Reviews:**

 **AyameKitsune : Here is the next chapter.**

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 **vxgt : They were tired from Surge training them into the ground. Maybe. It'll be awhile before Vulpix evolves.**

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* * *

Chapter 15

* * *

Once she'd dropped her pokemon off for a check up that probably wasn't really needed since there hadn't been many trainers traveling between Saffron and Vermilion, Vali took a long shower after starting on the laundry that she needed to get done. When she finished, the fire-type master-in-training felt less tense about being in another city. She headed downstairs to find Steven speaking to Nurse Joy and waited patiently for him to finish. Steven turned to her when he finished talking to Nurse Joy, "Ready to eat?"

"Definitely," Vali started heading for the cafeteria with Steven following her, "What were you talking to Nurse Joy about?"

"I was merely telling her about Lileep's approaching evolution and seeing if she would check on Blastoise's shell just in case," Steven replied as they entered the cafeteria and got into the small line for food, "I felt it best to warn her about Lileep. Even if he's more calm compared to most fossil pokemon, he has been a lot more aggressive than usual lately,"

"It's probably the grass-type in him," Vali commented as she grabbed a tray, "They tend to be the calmest pokemon until you piss them off," She likened them to Neville Longbottom especially since he probably would've been a grass-type trainer had he been in this world, "They also tend to show a lot of aggression when they're close to evolution. Very likely, he is likely agitated both because of his coming evolution and the cold since both sides of his typing don't really like it,"

"Very true," Steven picked up a tray and they began grabbing food from the buffet set up which mostly consisted of soup related items, "Vali, what exactly did you mean by Totem pokemon? I meant to ask earlier, but it slipped from my mind since we were getting close to Saffron,"

Vali headed for an empty table and sat down with Steven, "I found out about them when I was looking up Alolan pokemon after the whole thing with Elrond's evolution," She blew on her hot-chocolate before taking a sip with a small grimace at the overly processed and powdery flavor, "Totem pokemon are really interesting since they're basically kings without the whole king gene. They're actually considered sub-level Legendary pokemon only just below the lower powered ones like Meloetta and the Swords of Justice in Unova."

"Really?" Steven looked up from his stew in surprise.

Vali nodded as she began to stir up her own stew a bit, "Yes though it's mostly the older ones that carry that title," She thought about something, "Hey, Steven. Have you ever looked up the typing of the Legendaries outside of Hoenn?"

"Not really outside of the ones in Kanto, why?" Steven asked her curiously.

Vali took a bite of her stew after blowing on it, "You'd be surprised by how many are actually steel-types. I mostly know because I've been fairly interested in the Legendaries mostly because I have a feeling at least one of them is responsible for Siri and I ending up in Kanto," Steven's look of curiosity increased and she began listing the legendary steel-types, "We have Registeel, Jirachi, Dialga, Heatran, Cobalion, Solgaleo, and Magearna."

"What is Magearna?" Steven asked with a small frown.

"Magearna is one of the few confirmed artificial pokemon," Vali explained not too surprised that Steven wouldn't know much about it since the information was a secret and she only found out about it when Professor Oak let her use his database to research pokemon, "Not much is known about it save for the fact Volcanion is it's protector. I only know about it since I accidentally came across it one time when Professor Oak let me use his database to research pokemon,"

"How exactly is it considered a Legendary pokemon?" Steven asked her curiously.

"More mythical than legendary actually, but I'm not actually sure since I didn't get much of a chance to actually study the information," Vali hadn't been very interested in Magearna despite it being an artificial pokemon and over 500 years old, "You'd be better off asking Professor Oak or wait until you're a champion,"

"Why?" Steven asked as she took another bite of her stew.

"Champions and members of the Elite four along with top Rangers are given information about all Legendary pokemon in existence," Vali explained after taking a drink of water, "Mostly to ensure that the Legends are protected, they also need to know this information to ensure that if someone manages to catch one and use it for bad things, they can take it out," She took another bite of stew, "Lucky for you, steel-type pokemon aren't weak to most-types that legendary pokemon belong to,"

"Right," Steven frowned slightly, "How can someone catch a legendary though?"

Vali ate some more of her food before answering as she thought back to the information she'd learned through Professor Oak's database, "Certain Legendaries have more than one of themselves running around though no one has ever been able to confirm the exact number. Take the Legendary birds for example, Zapdos and Articuno have been sighted in at least two places at once before despite being on the other side of the world from one another. Based on that, my guess is there are at least a few of each Legendary outside of the few god-classed pokemon running around."

"That would actually make sense," Steven mussed as she picked up one of her rolls and began eating it, "It would be interesting if we could confirm it,"

"Guess that means you'll have to tell me when you become a champion," Vali grinned at him earning a chuckle.

"I suppose so," Steven stole one of her rolls.

"Hey! I was going to eat that," Vali protested earning a small smirk.

"You have four others to eat," Steven leaned back as she attempted to steal it back.

Vali pouted at him before taking another drink of her hot-chocolate and gagging a bit, "Remind me to never drink Pokemon Center brand hot-chocolate."

"Why?" Steven asked as he eyed her drink.

"It tasted like that over processed powdered crap," Vali wished she'd known that before she decided to grab a cup of it.

Steven grimaced at that, "I'll definitely keep that in mind though that one Pokemon Center we visited by Mount Moon wasn't too bad."

"Maybe it's the city ones that have the bad stuff," Vali commented earning a shrug.

* * *

After finishing lunch, Vali got her pokemon back from Nurse Joy before handing over her egg earning a smile from the pink haired nurse. She headed over to the pamphlets on Saffron City and various activities one could find. She found a few sign up sheets for tournaments on the notice board, but most were for fighting-type pokemon of which she had none. One catered for pokemon breeders and one for a pokemon beauty contest. Between them, the only one she'd actually be willing to enter was the beauty contest since Celina probably would've loved it. Instead she ignored the sign up sheets, she found a few ads for some of the local business' including a move tutor and a daycare.

Steven joined her after getting his pokemon back from Nurse Joy, "Find anything good?"

"No tournaments going on that I can participate in since my pokemon aren't fighting types," Vali gestured to the sign up sheets, "There's one for pokemon breeders and a pokemon beauty contest that I would've considered had Celina been with us. Outside of that, the only interesting ads are for a local move tutor and a daycare," She looked at Steven, "I think we're going to be in for a lot of walking around if we want to find things to do,"

"That's fine with me," Steven shrugged lightly, "But we should probably go to the gym soon,"

"Yeah," Vali sighed kind of wanting to avoid going near the gym right now especially since it doubled as a school for psychics.

After getting her egg back from Nurse Joy and putting it into her room, Vali left with Steven towards the gym.

* * *

Saffron City Gym looked rather unusual and out of place in the city compared to the other gyms that Vali had been to. The structure resembled a rather unusual dome made of some kind of pale pearl color. She supposed that it was probably done like that to represent psychic powers or something along those lines. To be honest, she would've gone with a more traditional looking building with water features and rock gardens to make meditation easier. She felt a shiver run down her spine as they approached it and a slight prickling sensation near the center of her forehead. Steven reached over and grabbed her hand when she faltered a bit, "Are you alright, Vali?"

"I will be if the psychic currently picking at me would stop," Vali muttered feeling a bit angry.

The prickling sensation vanished immediately causing Vali to glare at the gym. Steven frowned as he laid a hand on Metagross' pokeball, "Do you want me to have Metagross shield your mind?"

Vali nodded after a moment of thought, "If they're willing, I would be grateful for their assistance."

A pleased hum echoed in Vali's mind telling her that Metagross approved of her words. Steven smiled a bit and let go of her hand, "Shall we go?"

"Might as well get this over with," Vali said as they resumed walking towards the building.

The door opened automatically when they reached it and the two walked inside. A man dressed up in a deep violet colored suit with a white lab coat settled on his shoulders greeted him. He was overweight with thinning brown hair and narrowed black eyes that were currently sizing the two trainers up. When his lips pulled back into a grimace, she could tell he wasn't impressed with either of them. He had a nasally voice, "I am Psychic Arron. We are not seeing trainers at the moment, so please leave."

"Gym Leader Hino requested that we meet," Vali said while wondering if he was one of those psychics that were arrogant because of their ability.

"And who are you?" Psychic Arron gazed at her like she was a particularly disgusting bug that he desired to squash beneath his boots.

Vali refrained from sneering back at the man who was reminding her of Petunia on a particularly bad day mixed with Snape. She spoke in a measured tone, "I am Valkyrie Potter-Black and my companion is Steven Stone."

"And why would Gym Leader Hino request a meeting with you?" The man's eyes narrowed further at them.

Vali felt a bit bad for Sabrina if she was surrounded by pricks like this guy. She pulled on all the Slytherin arrogance that she'd managed to copy from Draco Malfoy without the inability to actually back it up, "That is between us, Psychic Arron. Inform Gym Leader Hino of our presence as you are likely supposed to be doing at this moment."

The man opened his mouth only to shut it and pale when Sabrina spoke from a nearby doorway that Vali hadn't really noticed because of Psychic Arron demanding some attention, "There is no need for that, I was aware of your arrival. Arron, I would advise you to remember that you're already on thin ice. Do not make me reconsider your place here."

"My apologies, My Lady," Arron's skin paled further and he gave a grudging apology to the two trainers, "My apologies for my rudeness,"

Vali nodded while Steven replied, "You're forgiven," He focused on Sabrina, "Gym Leader Hino, do you know which of your psychics decided to try and breach Vali's mind?"

"No, but I will find out and punish them," Sabrina looked at Vali, "I must apologize for the rudeness my pupils have laid at your feet,"

"It's alright though can we move onto why we're here today as well as schedule Steven and I's gym battles?" Vali requested earning a nod while Psychic Arron bristled at her words.

Sabrina led them through the gym after dismissing Psychic Arron and Vali felt a bit uncomfortable at the rather sterile feel of it all. Sabrina spoke as they moved past a few classrooms, "You are uncomfortable here, Vali?"

"A bit," Vali shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket, "It seems a bit...sterile,"

"I suppose so though most young psychics benefit from being in such a setting," Sabrina explained as she led them through a door into a rather traditional looking hallway that immediately leeched the discomfort out of Vali, "It assists them in letting go of distractions and prevents them from accidentally causing harm if their powers lash out," The gym leader smiled slightly as she led them into a rather comfortable looking sitting room, "Please take a seat both of you,"

Vali sank into one of the two plush couches in the room with Steven joining her after a moment. Vulpix chose to release himself from his pokeball and began looking around his new surroundings in interest. The white of his tail was nearly gone and he'd grown big enough that you couldn't really tell he was actually a runt. He stayed in her lap and would stay there until she gave him permission to explore as she'd managed to teach him. Sabrina smiled softly at the sight of the young fox, "He's a handsome one. I assume he came from that egg you received from the Ninetales?"

Vali nodded not feeling very surprised that Sabrina had heard of it, "Yeah. Sabrina, I would like to request some assistance in helping one of my pokemon. My Pikachu evolved and ended up becoming an Alolan Raichu. Would you be able to help with setting him up for some psychic-type training? Professor Oak's Alakazam helped, but I really want to cover all the bases considering the fact untrained psychic-types can harm themselves quite badly."

"I would be happy to," Sabrina sat down on the couch across from them with an Espeon appearing from somewhere outside the room, "I am glad that you asked," The Espeon jumped onto the couch beside Sabrina and began to nuzzle the Gym Leader earning a small smile, "Espeon, will you assist in this endeavor?"

Espeon peered at Vali for a moment before inclining its head. Smiling light, she told the cat-like Eeveelution, "Thank you, Espeon. Elrond will be thankful for any assistance you may provide."

Sabrina lost her smile after a moment, "Vali, my I ask if there has been any changes since we last saw one another?"

"More visions mostly," Vali hugged Vulpix to her chest, "Many of them have been quite violent in nature though none have threatened to burn me like the first one," Sabrina looked at her in concern, "I have managed to figure out that whoever is sending them will call for me to find them soon enough and that they're known as the Lord of Flames,"

Sabrina's eyes narrowed a bit, "I know that name though only vaguely. I believe that I saw it in one of my books back during my childhood."

"But whoever the Lord of Flames is, it's very unlikely any mental shields we manage to create will block them unless they allow it," Vali admitted one of the things that she feared.

"That may be true, but you do need mental shields especially given where this might end up leading you," Sabrina's tone was a bit firm, "While many psychics will be polite and avoid entering your mind, some exist that will not show you the same courtesy,"

"I'm aware," Vali was agreeing to this to prevent another incident like what happened during her first trip to Saffron City, "When should we begin?"

"Tomorrow if you wouldn't mind, I will need to gather some things," Sabrina told her earning a nod, "I assume you plan to only spend a month within Saffron?"

"Yes. That will not be a problem, will it?" Steven asked with a worried look aimed at Vali.

"Not at all, it should allow us to put together a decent barrier especially if your...Elrond is willing to assist," Sabrina murmured the unfamiliar name with a slightly perplexed expression on her face.

"The name comes from a story back in the other world," Vali offered up as an explanation for Elrond's name, "I'm sure he'd be willing. Will it help him speak to me?"

Sabrina nodded causing a wide grin to spread across Vali's face since that would make communicating with her pokemon so much easier, "Indeed though you will need to be patient as non-pure psychic-types have some difficultly with the skill at first."

"I don't mind," Vali would always be patient with her pokemon especially when it came to them learning a new skill.

Sabrina smiled lightly, "Now, would you two like information on Saffron? While I may not enjoy going out among the masses, I do have an idea of the more interesting places in Saffron that cater to pokemon trainers as well as areas that don't."

"That would be much appreciated," Steven and Vali were both grateful for the offer.

While it was fun to explore new places, the fact winter was still firmly gripping Kanto made it a lot less fun.

* * *

Vali and Sabrina set up a schedule for the fire-type master-in-training's time in Saffron. In the morning after breakfast, she would come to Sabrina's gym where they would spend an hour working on her mental barriers. Elrond would spend that time learning underneath Espeon since the psychic-type eeveelution had been in his place once before only without the added typing. After meditation was done, they would have a mock battle to help the younger trainer get a grasp on commanding a psychic-type. She would then leave the gym to explore Saffron with Steven usually eating lunch in one of the restaurants that catered to pokemon trainers. At five, they would return to the pokemon center to train their pokemon with Metagross and Claydol using their psychic-type abilities to help with everyone's. After dinner at six, they would spend some time relaxing with her meditating for an hour before going to bed.

The schedule shifted depending on the day and Sabrina's schedule given that she was a teacher at the psychic school. Saffron city was more of a business filled city than anything else, but it did boast a moderate amount of interesting activities. One of the more interesting places to visit was the Silph Tower mostly because it was one of the tallest buildings in Kanto and boasted quite the view that many from around the world came to see. It was also where Vali and Steven ended up meeting Bill again.

* * *

Vali held Vulpix in her arms looking around the small store set up on the first floor of the tower, "I actually thought that they'd have a larger selection of stuff, but then again, it isn't like this is the Celadon department store."

"True, but it does have some more hard to get items," Steven gestured towards the rather large selection of pokeballs currently on display not to mention the one filled with evolutionary items.

Vali gave a small hum as she moved towards the evolutionary stone display case. She found a fire-stone and pointed it out to Vulpix, "Hey, Vulpix. That's a fire-stone, you'll evolve using one when you're ready."

Vulpix looked at the stone with awe and squirmed a bit to press a paw against the glass of the display case. Even through the display case, he could probably feel the fire-stone and a big part of him probably craved to touch it. It was no secret that pokemon who utilized evolutionary items in order to evolve had what some scientists called an 'evo-itch' that basically forced them to search out the item that would grant them the ability to evolve. The Vulpix and Growlithe-line weren't well-known for displaying those signs despite being known to travel for years in search of a fire-stone. It was an instinct that every pokemon capable of evolution carried within them to evolve in order to gain strength once they've reached the limit of what they can do. Some might be able to squash the urge which was made easier on them by obtaining an everstone despite the discomfort that it brought them. So despite his young age, Vulpix was likely feeling some small form of the itch.

Moving away from the display case, Vali wasn't surprised when Vulpix turned his head towards her and let out a low whine. She adjusted her hold on him and rubbed behind his ears, "One day, Vulpix. You're still a bit too young to evolve and have quite a bit to learn."

"Do my ears deceive me or is Valkyrie Potter in Saffron City?" Vali was surprised to hear Bill's voice.

"Bill?" Vali turned and found Bill walking past one of the nearby shelving units, "It's been awhile,"

"That it has," Bill's eyes landed on Vulpix and widened, "Is that a Vulpix?"

"Yes, he's about a week and a month old," Vali confirmed as Vulpix shifted to peer at the new human, "I got his egg during my time in Vermilion,"

"He's adorable," Bill walked closer as he looked up at Vali, "May I?"

"Vulpix?" Vali called to her little one and he looked up at her, "Bill would like to hold you for a little. Would you mind?"

Vulpix eyed Bill for a moment before barking and wagging his tail. Vali handed over Vulpix and Bill immediately began examining the little fox closely, "He's a bit heavier than I was expecting, but everything else points to him being healthy. The color of his eyes and the brightness of the red in his fur definitely points to a good pedigree. He's a bit warmer than I was expecting though."

"He managed to get off an Ember two weeks ago," Vali offered earning a raised eyebrow, "I'm going to talk with Nurse Joy about seeing when it'd be okay to start his training,"

"Considering the fact he would have been under a month old, he's definitely going to be a powerhouse when he's older," Bill handed Vulpix back, "Where is Balto?"

"Fully evolved same with Smaug, Celina, and Elrond my Pikachu turned Alolan Raichu," Vali offered the information earning a surprised look, "It surprised everyone back when I finally evolved him, but apparently he's from Alola only to get abandoned by his former trainer,"

Bill let out a disgusted sound, "Honestly, some people are the worst," Bill looked over her shoulder and smiled, "Hello, Steven. How are you?"

"I'm fine," Steven smiled politely as he walked up behind her, "And you?"

"Much better than the last time we saw each other," Bill held out his hand and the two heirs to diffrent corporations shook hands, "What brings you two to Saffron?"

"Gym battles mostly," Vali answered as Vulpix shifted to lay his head on her shoulder with a soft yawn, "Right now, we're taking a break," She returned Vulpix so he could nap and put his pokeball back on her necklace, "What about you?"

Bill flushed a bit, "A mandatory check in. When I don't check in over the phone, Dad has someone come drag me out of the lab mostly to ensure that I'm still alive and healthy."

"Understandable," Sirius and Delia wanted her to check in quite often after the almost mugging, "So you're just wandering around until he let's you go or what?"

"That and getting some paperwork done," Bill let out a low sigh, "I'd much prefer it if I wasn't going to inherit the company when Dad decides to retire," He shook himself before asking, "Have you two had tour of the building?"

"Not yet, we were planning on joining the next tour group," Vali answered with a slight shrug.

"Well why don't I just give you one," Bill offered earning surprised looks though Steven's turned to understanding when the researcher explained, "Dad doesn't like it when I'm not being social and tends to shove me into doing things during times like this. If I'm giving you two a tour, I won't have to socialize with strangers and not have to go do paperwork. Dad will also be happy to see that I'm trying to foster a good relationship with the heir of another corporation,"

* * *

Bill took them around Silph Corp to places that weren't on the normal tour, but he wanted to show them anyway. Despite his lack of interest in non-pokemon related subjects, Bill was quite knowledgeable about the building and the various areas he showed them. Eventually, he ended the tour on the top of the building above the observation deck allowing them to avoid the crush of visitors inhabiting it. Vali stared at the city that stretched out below them and the landscape that she could see just beyond the city all around them. She took out her non-expensive camera and began taking photos when the urge hit her rather strongly. When she finished, Steven called her over to the railing where he and Bill were standing. Bill grinned when she said, "Despite not liking cities, I have to say they're interesting to see from above."

"This is the only view you'll get of Saffron like this since flying-types aren't allowed to fly in this air-space," Bill told her earning a slightly nod, "This is my favorite place in the city,"

"I can definitely understand," Vali loved being up so high though she had to ask since something bothered her about this experience, "What's keeping the wind and cold from being too much?"

"Psychic-types," Bill explained as he reached out and caused a thin blue tinted barrier to appear, "Dad has a few from back during his trainer days that don't mind doing things like this,"

"It's definitely enjoyable to not freeze despite being so high up during winter," Vali sent a mental thanks to the psychic-types and felt a small sense of gratitude come back at her, "So Bill, have any more trouble with the Ekans?"

"Not at all," Bill flushed a bit, "Thanks to you, I managed to make it so the lab portion of my cottage won't give out any vibrations that would disturb them," He cleared his throat, "Anyway, I brought you two up here for another reason,"

"What do you mean?" Steven asked as he shared a look with Vali.

"It isn't anything serious at the moment, but I felt that both of you deserved to know," Bill looked between them with a slightly hesitant expression on his face, "Normally, I wouldn't say anything given the fact we aren't actually friends and this is supposed to be a secret, I am doing so to repay the favor I owe you for helping me with the Ekans,"

Vali quickly figured out why he was hesitant, "This is something the League doesn't want just anyone to know, isn't it? It's going to be one the secrets that could cause an unneeded mass panic if it gets out."

Bill only looked slightly surprised, "Professor Oak was right. You're a quick thinker, Vali," He lost any trace of a smile on his face, "You might not realize it, but recently crime has increased. Not just human related crimes, I mean the ones involving pokemon," Vali stiffened and felt her face pale as Steven gained a severe look on his face, "The League isn't sure why exactly, but it thinks that we might be having a new Team appearing."

Steven took one of her hands and squeezed which helped Vali calm down, "Why would you say that?"

"I don't know, but my Dad was warned to start improving our security just in case," Bill looked a little worried at Vali's pale face, "Vali, what's wrong?"

"I almost got mugged in Vermilion by someone with a gun not even a few blocks from the gym," Vali answered making Bill pale rapidly, "The guy was going to try and take my pokemon. Thankfully, Steven managed to step in and I got away,"

Bill swallowed heavily, "I'm sorry to hear that, Vali. Did you..."

"I got grazed by the bullet," Vali tightened her grip on Steven's hand feeling a bit of panic well up.

Steven spoke up as Bill went green, "Bill, I assume the warning you wish to give us mostly involves being more careful."

Bill nodded as he tore his eyes away from Vali, "Especially in cities. Make sure you keep a close eye on Vulpix and your shiny Sandshrew, Vali."

"I can do that easily especially since Idril is back with Professor Oak," Vali calmed down at the mention of her pokemon, "Thanks for the warning, Bill,"

"No problem," Bill shook himself slightly, "How about we head back down?"

* * *

A Team hadn't been seen in Kanto for around fifteen years after the old Team Rocket under the rule of Madam Rocket had been disbanded by Champion Red and Professor Oak's son Blue back when the two men had been sixteen. They alongside those that many referred the Dex Holders who each carried the first fully functional pokedex in each Region had taken down all the evil teams that had been around back then. Sure there had been attempts to create more, but none had been successful thanks to the continued efforts of those that had taken them down. The only one that had come close was Team Cross, but they'd been taken down rather brutally by Agatha. Considering just how many had died as a result of the woman's ghost-type pokemon not to mention the ones belonging to Team Cross agents who'd never gained a proper hold on the ghosts, it wasn't surprising how reluctant people were when it came to forming a new Team. Vali was snapped out of her musing's at Sabrina's call of her name, "Vali."

"Sorry, Sabrina," Vali offered a tired smile towards the gym leader.

Sabrina frowned at her, "What bothers you, Vali? You normally have no trouble meditating."

"I didn't sleep well last night," Vali's nightmares of the mugger had come back with a vengeance leaving her quite tired and shaky.

Sabrina's frown deepened, "May I ask why?"

Vali hesitated a moment before asking in return, "Do you know of an event that happened in Vermilion City near the gym?" Sabrina's eyes narrowed for a moment before widening as the Gym Leader gave her a look of realization, "Someone mentioned something that brought it back to the forefront leaving my sleep troubled."

"I see," Sabrina stood up from the mat she'd been sitting on, "Follow me,"

Vali stood up from her sitting position and followed the gym leader out of the meditation garden she had set up, "May I ask where we're going?"

"I find that when myself troubled due to bad memories and meditation becomes too difficult that drinking tea helps," Sabrina answered as they reached a small kitchen, "It might not be as calming to you, but it might help,"

Vali nodded as she moved to sit down on one of the chairs while Sabrina got the tea ready, "I haven't had a good cup of tea in awhile."

"It's truly difficult to get one while traveling especially before they managed to create those storage containers," Sabrina set a kettle on the stove after filling it with water before beginning to rummage around in the cupboards, "It was one of the more distasteful parts of my journey,"

"You went on a journey?" Vali looked at Sabrina in surprise for the information.

Sabrina nodded with a small smile as she pulled out a jar filled with tea leaves while some ceramic tea cups floated out of another cupboard, "Yes. It was during the two years before my father and the League finally deemed me ready to take over as a Gym Leader. It is a time that I remember quite fondly," Sabrina set the cups down on the table and placed the jar of tea leaves down beside them, "It's also when I managed to catch Espeon back when he was an Eevee."

"I can understand it. Despite everything that's happened so far, I've really enjoyed my journey especially since it brought me my pokemon family," Vali had no doubt she'd look back on her first year with fondness when she was older.

Sabrina got out everything else to prepare their tea with and soon enough they were able to enjoy the tea that she'd chosen. Vali did admit to feeling just a bit calmer though talking to Sabrina about the Gym Leader's own journey helped the most. Sabrina let out a soft laugh as she finished explaining a rather embarrassing incident involving honey and a rather persistent Heracross, "Tomoe absolutely refuses to go back to Johto and will hide himself if he has to."

"I don't blame him," Vali giggled feeling a bit sorry for the Alakazam.

Sabrina shook her head lightly before asking, "May I ask what brought up your bad memory, Vali?"

Vali didn't want to get Bill into trouble, but she also wanted to confirm the information, "Bill mentioned that there might be a new Team forming."

Sabrina's eyes flashed in irritation, "I will need to speak with him about keeping secrets or ask his father to. I do not blame him for informing you though given what happened," The Gym Leader sighed deeply, "The investigation is within it's early stages, but there is a good chance that a Team is forming within the shadows."

Vali felt dread run through her at that, "Is there anyway to stop it?"

"Until we can get evidence that it is occurring, no," Sabrina reached out and placed a hand on Vali's, "The Team will be stopped if it is true even if it means bringing in Red and Blue once more,"

Vali was thankful for the attempt to comfort her though it did nothing to assuage her worries. Deciding to change the subject, she asked, "How are my mental defenses coming along?"

Sabrina didn't comment on the subject change much to Vali's relief, "You're doing rather well for a non-Psychic. I believe that within the next two weeks you shouldn't have much trouble keeping most Psychics out especially if Elrond is able to bolster you. In a week, we'll do a test to see where you stand than work on having Elrond assist with your shields."

"That's a relief," Vali would be happy when no Psychic would have an easy time getting into her mind.

"I have found the one who bothered you and punished them," Sabrina offered as Vali finished her second cup of tea, "They will be apologizing soon enough. She's one of my newer Gym Trainers who've only just discovered their potential as a Psychic,"

Vali felt her irritation at the reminder lessen at that. Newly discovered Psychics have the worst control and the girl probably didn't realize that she was being rude. More than likely, the girl had been interested in the unique feel to her mind. Magic offered a unique feel to ones mind that Psychics of both the human and pokemon variety found almost as interesting as others like them. She set down her cup, "I see. How new of a Psychic is she?"

"Barely a week since her Munna unlocked that side," Sabrina answered with a faint smile, "The Munna hatched a few days before it happened and didn't realize what it had done. Thankfully nothing catastrophic occurred,"

Vali nodded in agreement before jolting when her pokenav rang. She offered Sabrina an apologetic look earning a small shrug as the Gym Leader began cleaning up their little tea break, "Hello?"

"Vali," Professor Oak greeted her, "Do you have a moment?"

Vali looked at Sabrina who waved her off, "Sure thing, Professor. Is something wrong?"

"Not at all, I just wanted to tell you that I've managed to get into contact with Lorelei about Vulpix," Professor Oak explained earning a small nod from Vali as she took out her pokedex and got it ready to take notes.

"What did she say?" Vali asked him curiously.

"Lorelei obtained her Dewgong as an egg which was the runt of it's litter," Professor Oak explained earning a raised eyebrow from Vali.

"Wouldn't that mean there might be a correlation between runts and the king gene?" Vali asked well aware that Sabrina was listening in on the conversation.

Professor Oak nodded with an excited smile, "Indeed and I'll be talking with Professor Elm about this subject once I managed to get into contact with him again."

"Professor, I am going to authorize you to give Professor Elm the information I'm going to be gathering about Vulpix's development as a king," Vali told the man earning a wide eyed look, "It will give Vulpix more protection in the long-run not to mention benefit me a bit when it comes to gaining my Mastery,"

Vali might need to write a few research papers eventually, but she didn't actually need to personally write them. So long as she took part in gaining the information for it, she would be good even if it would mean taking a bit longer to gain her mastery. Professor Oak let out a soft chuckle and moved to type something into a nearby computer, "I'll make sure to tell him that. It's likely he'll have you come to Johto at some point in order to study Vulpix."

"I don't mind," Vali would probably take that chance to see if she could get a Cyndaquil as well as visit Charicific Valley.

"Anyway, Lorelei mentioned that while as a Seel it's appetite was twice what one normally ate and three times as much after an intense battle/training session," Professor Oak said prompting Vali to write it down, "Meaning that you'll probably need to give Vulpix around the same amount of food as Balto after intensive training/battling when he reaches all six tails,"

"Noted," Vali would need to win a few tournaments in order to keep up with Vulpix's appetite especially if she didn't want it to dig too much into her nest egg, "I'm guessing it doubled after evolving into a Dewgong?"

"Yes," Professor Oak offered her a sympathetic smile likely knowing the feeling since his Dragonite ate quite a bit, "Thankfully, she managed to find a good alternative,"

"What kind of alternative?" Vali asked as she mentally despaired over her wallet's future.

"Food pills created by the League that are created with the pokemon eating them in mind," Professor Oak explained earning a dubious look, "The pills contain enough food to be qualified as a full meal by the pokemon. While they might not taste very good according to Lorelei's Dewgong, they're good enough especially if you supplement them with a few berries,"

"Let me guess that alternative hinges on me becoming an Ace or League affiliated trainer?" Vali asked earning a nod, "Well if I wasn't motivated before, I am now,"

"If you don't become one, the food pills cost quite a lot of money," Professor Oak told her making the fire-type master-in-training inwardly groan, "Thankfully, you are technically a League affiliated trainer thanks to being one of my Data Collectors meaning that when the time comes the price will be lessened. It won't be as much as becoming an Ace or an Elite of course. It'll still be enough to make a difference,"

Vali sighed in relief, "Thanks for the information, Professor. I was just a bit worried."

"No problem, Vali," Professor Oak smiled lightly, "Where are you exactly?"

"Saffron City gym," Vali answered as she turned her pokenav towards Sabrina.

"Greetings Professor Oak," Sabrina greeted the professor with a light smile, "It has been awhile since we last spoke,"

"Not since the negotiations for exchanging pokemon between gyms," Professor Oak smiled in return, "It is good to see you again. Have the pokemon you received caused any trouble?"

"None save for needing to get used to being in Kanto," Sabrina replied as she moved closer, "Has there been any difficulties with the psychic-types at your ranch?"

"Nothing Alakazam can't handle," Professor Oak turned his head as a ringing sound came through the phone, "That must be Professor Elm, I should go," He looked back at the screen, "I will speak to you soon, Vali. Sabrina, it was wonderful to see you again,"

"You as well, Professor," Sabrina replied with a slight tilt of her head.

"See you then, Professor," Vali told the man before ending the call.

* * *

Lileep evolved during a practice battle against Empress when the Bagon managed to use Bite for the first time and got a hold of Lileep's yellow stem. Empress was forced away by an enraged Lileep utilizing ancient power in a way that Vali had never even considered. The fossil pokemon had made the rocks _grow_ along his body and forced Empress' teeth out of his skin. After he'd thrown Empress away, Lileep was engulfed in the light of evolution. When the light faded, she began taking pictures of the newly evolved fossil pokemon after returning Empress to ensure that she didn't try to attack.

The newly evolved Cradily was an odd pokemon and pretty much blew away what many scientists expected it to look like. It was larger than Lileep with light green skin covered in various yellow markings on its head, neck, and torso. The circular yellow eye-spots on its head were merely for decoration. Its true eyes laid within the dark mouth-like opening on its head. Surrounding its head at the base are eight pink tentacles, they increased it's flower-like resemblance. Its long neck was flexible with yellow bands in the center leading Vali to believe it had developed like that to better capture prey. Its body is short and squat with four stubby growths and a yellow oval marking on its chest with a target-like pattern.

Cradily stretched his new body out as Steven slowly began to approach. When Steven was close, Cradily froze and turned his head towards the icy blue haired teen. Steven raised a hand, "Easy Cradily. Remember me?"

Cradily peered at his trained for a few moments before extending his head allowing Steven to lay his hand on the skin above the mouth-like opening on Cradily's head. The newly evolved pokemon let out a deep gurgling sound and rubbed his head against Steven's hand. Vali smiled softly as she watched the pair making sure to take a few photos that wouldn't be shared in the report she'd be sending back to Professor Oak. After all, it was a personal moment between trainer and pokemon when evolution occurred.

* * *

Thanks to Steven giving her permission, Vali was able to get information directly from Nurse Joy about Cradily. Writing up the report she'd be sending to Professor Oak in a week once the evolution had settled and any extra information was added in, she made sure to create a two more copies that Steven would be able to send to Professor Rowan and his father. She was surprised by a few things when it came to Cradily. Cradily did seem to have much aggression at all even when exposed to water which usually set off any newly evolved rock-type. He also seemed to find the cold less bothersome. He seemed to dislike moving too much. And the most surprising development was his diet, he began eating rocks and ate less pokemon food.

Vali consulted Professor Oak about the change in appetite. Professor Oak had some theories and ended up consulting Blaine. They managed to theorize that Cradily had evolved to become a more stationary hunter that gained nutrients from the rocks around it due to its heavier body. The heavier body had developed in order to better fight the strong currents around where it normally resided, but that had the negative effect of making it harder to catch prey which in turn forced it to adapt. The flexible neck would allow for it to catch whatever prey ended up coming near it. During the times it couldn't obtain any prey, it would be able to subsist on the rocks around it. As a result, it did not require as much protein in its diet as when it'd been a Lileep. With this in mind, they were able to put together a more accurate observation of how Lileep and Cradily had lived long ago.

* * *

Swearing echoed through Vali's room as she struggled to get Vulpix into the bath tub in order to wash the mud from his fur. Thanks to the warmer than normal last few days, the snow had melted and promptly turned most of the training grounds into mud pits. As if deciding to throw his nature as a Vulpix into the wayside, the kit had decided that rolling around in the mud would be fun. She growled at Vulpix and used her magic to grab him before dropping him gently into the shallow pool of hot water that wouldn't actually harm the little fox. She heard the door open and called over her shoulder while beginning the annoying process of cleaning off the fox, "Yeah?"

"Professor Oak is calling," Steven answered as he took in the sight of her trashed bathroom, "Do you want me to answer it?"

"Please, I need to get this little brat cleaned before the mud fully dries," Vali glared at Vulpix as he gave her an innocent 'who, me?' look that she didn't buy for a minute.

Steven came back after a few minutes as Vali finally got Vulpix to sit still long enough to start cleaning him up. It helped that Elrond had decided to use psychic to keep the brat still too. Steven snapped a picture of the scene for her before saying, "Professor, you're on speaker."

"Yo, Professor," Vali called over her shoulder.

"Hello, Vali. How goes bathing the kit?" Professor Oak's voice was filled with suppressed laughter.

"Almost reminds me of the time I had to get Ash and Gary bathed with Daisy after they decided it would be fun to take mud baths with the Poliwag," Vali cleaned away a particularly stubborn patch of mud, "Only this time there is only one troublesome brat and I have Elrond to help me,"

"Psychic-types do tend to help in such matters," Professor Oak agreed with a soft chuckle.

"So what did you need to talk with me about?" Vali requested as she drained the tub before refilling it, "Did I forget to add something to the report?"

"Not at all, I am actually calling to say tell you that I want you to turn it into a research paper," Professor Oak answered startling Vali into dropping the soapy wash rag she was using.

"What?!" Vali almost squeaked as she shouted.

Elrond caught the wash rag and continued cleaning Vulpix seeing as his trainer was currently in a state of shock. Professor Oak nodded lightly as he said, "I want you to turn it into a proper research paper. I'll send you a few guidelines along with some extra material I've been able to get from Blaine."

"B-but Professor," Vali shook away her surprise, "I would've thought you'd do that,"

"I would, but seeing as you were the one to obtain the information and are also close enough to the subject of the paper itself, you'd be the perfect person to write it," Professor Oak smiled at her, "Think of it this way, you'll have started paving your way to mastery,"

Vali weakly protested by pointing out, "I'm only ten."

"Physically speaking, but age doesn't matter when it comes to things like this," Professor Oak pointed out, "I'll help you as much as I can and even edit the paper, Vali,"

Vali opened her mouth to protest before closing it when she realized that Professor Oak was serious. Inwardly groan, she said, "A-alright, I guess."

"Good!" Professor Oak grinned at her, "I can't wait to see how you do. If you'll excuse me, I've got to go deal with a few things,"

With that, the call ended and Vali slumped against the wet side of the bathtub. She looked at Steven, "How the hell did this even happen?"

"Because you're Vali Potter and your luck is interesting," Steven offered her a warm smile, "Not to mention, you are fairly good at putting together information and presenting it in a fashion that keeps the reader interested without taking away from what they're learning,"

Vali groaned softly, "How the hell am I supposed to write a research paper? We have less than two weeks before our battles with Sabrina and then we'll be on the road. Where will I find the time to write it?"

"Write it in your spare time without letting it get in the way," Steven suggested as Vulpix licked her cheek seemingly trying to apologize for being a brat, "There isn't a time limit after all,"

Vali turned back to finishing up Vulpix's bath, "True. I guess it isn't so bad, but I'm only ten. What ten year old writes research papers?"

"What ten year old is a data collector for Professor Oak?" Steven retorted as he leaned back against the doorway, "Think about it this way, you'll be making things easier to obtain your goals,"

"True," Vali had to admit that he was right, "I wonder how my luck will counter balance this time,"

Because Professor Oak having Vali write a Research Paper rather than do it himself was lucky, the fact that fans of Professor Oak's work would check out hers simply because she was one of his sponsored trainers meant there wouldn't be as much trouble getting people to pay attention to her future work. Professor Oak was probably doing it for reasons that would only be clear to the man. Deciding it didn't matter why this was happening, she decided that it would be best to worry about everything later on. For now, she had a bratty kit to finish bathing.

* * *

Elrond's presence in Vali's mind reminded her of cool static flavored with whatever emotion he was currently feeling. She latched onto that feeling and slowly guided him to the wall she'd been forming with Sabrina's help. Elrond jolted for a moment when her own mental presence and magic touched him before relaxing as he followed her towards the wall. Reaching it, Elrond's presence expanded as he began to take in the wall before beginning to strengthen it. In the future once their bond was more solid and they were more experienced in guarding her mind, they would be able to expand the wall and its defenses even without her being a Psychic.

Slowly, Elrond withdrew from her mind after a few moments and Vali opened her eyes. Elrond floated over to settle in her lap with a tired yawn and she hugged him feeling a bit sleepy, "That was easier this time."

The first few times had been a lot harder and taken more out of them both. It was mostly due to the innate fiery nature of her magic due to the inner flame Vali carried and getting used to the thunderstorm that was Elrond. As they continued to work on it, the burning fire of her mental presence had turned into a soothing warmth and Elrond's thunderstorm had become a cooling static. She looked at Sabrina as the Psychic Gym Leader walked over with Espeon curled around her shoulders. Sabrina smiled warmly at the fire-type master-in-training, "I do believe that you two should have no problem so long as you meditate together once every day."

"Probably during the evenings until it doesn't tire us out so much," Vali was proud of them both for coming so far and she could feel a similar sense of pride coming from the Elrond's side of the bond that had developed between them since the first time their minds touched.

" _Thank you for your help, Master Espeon,"_ Elrond broadcasted in a slightly soft baritone that didn't exactly sound right coming from the Raichu.

Espeon inclined his head as an almost airy voice that seemed to deepen at random replied, " _It was no trouble with such a determined students. So long as you ensure your trainer is protected alongside your...pack, it will be thanks enough."  
_

Elrond nodded with determination floating through his side of the bond. Sabrina held out a hand and helped Vali stand up, "Now, you should take the next two days to rest as our battle will be soon at hand. I am looking forward to facing both Steven and you."

Vali nodded with an eager grin since psychic-type pokemon were tricky especially when they were part of the Abra-line. It would probably be as fun as fighting Koga had been despite the poisoning aspect of it all. Sabrina's warm smile grew a bit at her eagerness likely feeling some form of excitement as well. Despite the rocky start to their relationship due to Sabrina's actions during her first visit to Saffron, the two had become somewhat close especially given that they'd both seen bits and pieces of the others memories during the process of building up her mental walls. While they weren't friends, the two would probably consider each other an ally of some form with the potential to become friends later on in life.

* * *

Steven looked up as Vali walked into one of the trainer lounges that Saffron city's Pokemon Center boasted, "How was your morning?"

"Elrond and I had an easier time today," Vali flopped onto the couch beside him with a light smile, "So long as we meditate together once a day, we'll be able to keep up our progress and eventually not feel so tired when we work together,"

"That's excellent news," Steven looked down at his pokenav as a text came through.

"What about you?" Vali asked him curiously.

"Ryner and I have been discussing things via text," Steven answered as he typed out a reply, "He is mostly keeping me up to date about what's going on in Hoenn,"

"That's nice of him," Vali let out a soft yawn.

Steven smiled lightly, "Perhaps you should take a nap, we have another hour before we'll need to leave in order to catch that movie."

Vali hummed softly under her breath before shrugging and shifting to lay on her side, "Sounds like a plan."

It didn't take long for Vali to fall asleep which is something Steven had noticed since the first time this particular bit of training had happened. Considering the fact he'd had to pick up Vali and carry her back to the pokemon center the first time, it wasn't too hard to tell especially given Sabrina's warning about how likely it was to happen. He did have to say that while Vali being so tired wasn't something he liked, it wasn't something he minded especially since it'd cut down on the visions she'd been getting. Once Vali had really started to build up those walls, he'd noticed that Vali seemed a bit lighter as if some weight had been weighing down on her shoulders until that moment had fallen away. While he'd known that the visions had been causing some strain, he hadn't really noticed how bad it was until the weight they placed on Vali's shoulders began to lessen.

When an arm curled around his waist and a weight settle on his lap, Steven looked up from his pokenav to see Vali using his lap as a pillow. Fingers curled around and bunched up the fabric of his shirt, Vali's face was pressed close to his stomach. Brushing away some of the hair from her face, he turned back to his conversation with Ryner absentmindedly beginning to card his fingers through the soft strands of ash colored hair in between shooting off texts asking for more clarification or giving his opinion on the subject.

* * *

Taking a risk, Vali had decided against sending for any pokemon back home mostly due to the fact Pippin, Empress, and Pele had been working so hard. Not to mention, they alongside Smaug and Balto had been training heavily with Elrond, Metagross, and Claydol to fight against psychic-types. Pippin was also showing signs of evolution which wasn't surprising since the Shinx-line tended to evolve somewhat quickly alongside the usual regional starters. She was going to let him battle rather than Empress or Pele mostly because he had become a rather good battler thanks to Lt. Surge's assistance. He was less prone to either ignoring her orders or accidentally forgetting that they were in a battle. Unsurprisingly, Empress protested quite a bit about not being allowed to battle against Sabrina and it took Smaug beating the dragon up a bit to make her listen. While the fire-type master-in-training was put out that the little event with Dragonite hadn't quite gotten through to Empress, she was willing to be patient.

Sabrina was waiting in the battle ground of the Saffron City gym for Vali, "Good morning, Vali."

"Good morning to you as well, Sabrina," Vali replied with a light smile, "Ready to have some fun?"

"Indeed," Sabrina turned to Steven, "Please sit in the stands, Steven,"

"Good luck, Vali," Steven squeezed her hand before following Sabrina's orders.

Steven had faced Sabrina the day before which had solidified Vali's choices in who'd be fighting today. Empress and Pele were a bit too slow right now for her to risk it. Steven took Vulpix and Eevee up into the stands since both wanted to watch the battle. Moving to stand in the trainers box, Vali watched the referee appear, "This is a Four-on-Four battle between Gym Leader Sabrina of Saffron City and Challenger Valkyrie Potter of Pallet Town. Only the challenger may make any substitutions. Trainers release your first pokemon!"

Sabrina released a Slowbro as Vali released Pippin onto the field earning a raised eyebrow from the gym-leader, "A Shinx, Vali?"

Likely she'd been expected Elrond, Vali couldn't blame her, but she had decided to battle with Pippin first mostly because if he lost, she'd at least have an understanding of how Sabrina would be fighting against her. She shrugged lightly as Pippin cheerfully mewed at his opponent, "Pippin's been working really hard. Pip," Pippin got into an attack stance and twitched his ears towards her, "Baby-doll charge."

Pippin gave Slowbro puppy-dog eyes as electricity ran across his form. Slowbro blinked slowly before cooing at Pippin as a light pink sheen ran across its body. Pippin continued to charge up knowing that he'd need whatever boost he could get. Sabrina called out, "Slowbro, Confusion!"

The Shellder attached to Slowbro's tail bit down sharply and Slowbro used Confusion. Depending on how the pokemon was trained, Confusion could be used in quite a few ways though the most prominent was surrounding the users opponent in a tight psychic grip much like when a pokemon used Psychic. The only difference was that the psychic power behind Confusion had a chance of making the target confused via overstimulating the optical nerves in such a way that caused a severe headache alongside doing something that agitated the inner ear. In Slowbro's case, it created a series of rings in the form of a beam that sped towards Pippin. Pippin stopped his Charge and did his best to move out of the way while sending out a rather powerful Discharge attack that he'd learned from Lt. Surge's Luxray.

Slowbro's eyes bugged alongside the Shellder on its tail as the waves of powerful electricity slammed into it disrupting the Confusion attack. Pippin managed to avoid getting hit without tripping over his paws which was a testament of the training he'd been put through. Pippin once again resumed using Charge making Sabrina's eyes narrow a bit as Slowbro grunted in pain looking a less dazed than before. Sabrina called out, "Slowbro, Psychic!"

Pippin stopped his Charge immediately and began running around the field to make it more difficult for Slowbro to get a hold of him. Slowbro's eyes glowed a bright blue and it raised a paw. Pippin let out a panicked yowl as he was grabbed by Slowbro's Psychic and quickly began to squirm. Vali called out, "Pippin, Shock Wave!"

The move had been another one that Lt. Surge had taught them thanks to his Raichu teaching Elrond. It didn't require the electric-type to actually move which was perfect for Pippin's situation. Pippin let out a loud yowl as electrical energy rippled out of his form and slammed into Slowbro. Slowbro let out a cry of pain and dropped Pippin in shock as the electrical energy ripped through its body. Shellder actually let go of Slowbro's tail in an attempt to stop the voltage running through its body resulting in Slowbro returning to being a Slowpoke. Pippin's body was engulfed in the light of evolution as the referee called out, "As per the rules laid down by the League, Gym Leader Sabrina has lost this battle due to the separation of her pokemon. Gym Leader Sabrina, please remove them from the field and select your next pokemon."

Vali called Pippin back over to her as Sabrina recalled Slowpoke and Shellder before sending the pokeballs off with a Gym Trainer, "Pippin, I think that's enough for now," Pippin nodded as he tripped his way towards her, "You did pretty good," She recalled him before telling Sabrina, "I didn't expect that to happen."

"It does sometimes which is why the League has put such a rule in place if only to ensure such things doesn't kill the pokemon," Sabrina answered as she called out a Hypno, "Though do not expect such a thing to occur again during our battle,"

Vali admitted that she'd won the first round on a fluke and felt a little frustrated despite it giving her a bit more leeway later on in the battles, "Come out and battle with me, my friend," Elrond appeared and found himself faced with Hypno, "Elrond, Electrical Terrain and Electro Ball."

Elrond nodded and quickly did as she requested. Hypno managed to catch the Electro Ball with Psychic and toss it back. Elrond caught it with his own psychic power and sent it back with a bit more power. The two continued to send it back and forth increasing the power within the orb until Elrond decided to keep it. Instead of sending it back towards Hypno, Elrond seemed to reabsorb the electrical energy into his body. Elrond's fur gained a slight glow to it as his cheek pouched sparked visibly and he began to float up higher. Elrond spoke within her mind, " _Lt. Surge's Raichu told me about this and I was curious about discovering its potential."_

'So it made you stronger?' Vali asked as Elrond dodged a Psybeam from Hypno.

 _"Yes though I will admit it is somewhat painful mostly because I've never done such a thing before,"_ Elrond used Thunder Wave and then Thunder Bolt when Hypno's body was locked up by the first wave of electricity, " _I will work with Pippin on this as it will ensure both our electrical capacities increase,"_

'Only while we're in towns,' Vali didn't see much a reason to say no to it, 'I do not want you two to get hurt and me not be able to rush you to the pokemon center,'

Elrond nodded as he dodged another Psybeam, " _Understood."_

Elrond sent another Electro Ball towards Hypno and used Psychic to ensure it hit before using Electrical Terrain again. Hypno's eyes narrow as Elrond continued to batter him with electrical attacks. Finally, Hypno caught Elrond with Psychic and the two pokemon began to have a battle of wills. Vali encouraged Elrond through her thoughts via their bond while Sabrina was likely doing the same with Hypno. Eventually both pokemon were thrown back, Elrond weakly managing to rise up with a trail of blood leaking from his nose. Hypno did as well looking as tired as Elrond due to the attacks that had hit it before and the strain the mental battles had placed on it. Elrond sent a Thunder Shock as Hypno stuck out with a Psybeam. The two attacks hit one another before exploding with Elrond sending an Electro Ball towards Hypno that struck as the cloud created by the exploding attacks obscured the field. Hypno fell to its knees visibly straining to keep itself up. Bringing its pendulum up, it began swinging it gently. Elrond closed his eyes to avoid being hypnotized and sent another Electro Ball towards Hypno which finally knocked the mouth-less psychic-type out.

Elrond panted heavily as the referee called out, "Hypno is unable to battle, Gym Leader Sabrina please recall it and send out your next pokemon."

'Elrond, can you still battle?' Vali asked as he began floating towards her.

Elrond shook his head, " _Not at the moment, I need to rest after that mental battle. Return me for the moment, I will try to be ready for the next battle if Smaug or Balto should fail to win."_

"Thank you for your help, My friend," Vali murmured softly before returning Elrond and calling out Smaug, "Smaug, Elrond and Pippin won their battles. We have two more to go, so please do your best,"

Smaug let out a roar and spat an ember onto the ground as Sabrina released one of her famed Kadabra. If it had been for her last badge, Vali and her pokemon would facing a fully evolved Alakazam at the moment. Thankfully, it was only her sixth badge meaning that they'd probably only have to deal with a newly evolved Alakazam should Sabrina decide to use one. Smaug eyed the Kadabra he'd be facing with narrowed eyes. Despite being a prideful bastard, he knew to be wary of psychic-types especially after Professor Oak's Alakazam had smacked his ass around the ranch twice when she'd been irritated by him and Professor Oak's Charizard.

Smaug started the battle off with a Flamethrower attack that Kadabra dodged by teleporting away. Kadabra reappeared moments later behind Smaug to send a Shadow Ball towards him, "Smaug, behind you!"

Smaug lashed out with an Iron Tail behind himself and managed to hit the Shadow Ball making it explode. Vali frowned softly as Kadabra disappeared again and glanced towards Sabrina who was observing Smaug with a slight smile on her face. Fighting a pokemon that could teleport wasn't easy, she needed to change things up, "Smaug," He let out a low growl showing that he'd heard her, "This match up isn't going to work. Do you mind me switching you with Balto?" Smaug nodded and she returned him before sending out Balto, "Balto," Balto barked while looking around curiously, "Our opponent is a Kadabra and able to teleport. I switched you out with Smaug because you'll be able to sniff it out," Balto barked in acknowledgement and narrowed his eyes, "It can use Shadow Ball, so try to either dodge it or block it with an attack. Any other attacks should be blocked with Protect or dodged. Heat Wave if you can get close to it and Flamethrower if it's too far. Other than that, do your best."

Balto barked in acknowledgement and got ready. Kadabra appeared to the side and sent a Shadow Ball towards Balto. Balto dodged and sent a Flamethrower towards Kadabra. The psychic-type disappeared as the attack raced towards it and Balto darted towards where Kadabra had been. He began scenting the air taking in Kadabra's scent which would make it easier for him to find the psychic fox-like pokemon even with it teleporting around. The next time Kadabra appeared it barely had time to form a Shadow Ball before Balto appeared beside it with Extreme Speed and used Heat Wave. Kadabra let out a cry of pain and quickly teleported away. When it reappeared by Sabrina, she could that quite a bit of fur had been seared off on it's right arm and chest leaving some rather painful looking burns. Sabrina narrowed her eyes, "I see, so it looks like we will have to do things a bit differently."

Kadabra let out a sharp sounding growl and disappeared. Vali called out, "Balto, move around. Be wary of anything that happens from now on."

Balto barked in acknowledgement and began darting around the field. Kadabra appeared in the middle of the field and aimed a Psybeam at Balto. Balto sped up and aimed a Flamethrower at Kadabra who dodged it quickly by teleporting away. Vali understood that Kadabra was attempting to snipe Balto or tire him out when this continued for awhile. But given the fact Arcanine were stamina monsters it was likely attempting to lure Balto into a trap, she frowned while running through the moves that Kadabra could learn. Which was quite a lot, she frowned a bit. She called out, "Balto, Double Team as many times as you possibly can!"

Balto quickly began creating copies of himself before using Sunny Day. Kadabra began using Psybeam to destroy any copy of Balto that got close before teleporting away. Unfortunately for Kadabra, Balto kept adding new clones into the mix which only confused the psychic-type. Balto appeared beneath Kadabra when the psychic-type teleported again and caught Kadabra with Flare Blitz which knocked the psychic-type down. Kadabra managed to teleport itself away while Balto flinched and suffered from the recoil of using such a powerful move. When Kadabra reappeared, it dropped to the ground breathing heavily. Balto recovered from his recoil after a few moments and darted towards Kadabra using Extreme Speed. Kadabra caught Balto using Psychic and held him in the air for a few moments before passing out from the pain dropping her pokemon onto the ground roughly.

Balto pushed himself up with a soft growl as Sabrina returned her Kadabra. Sabrina looked at Vali with a slight smirk, "Not a bad showing, I wonder how you'll do against my last pokemon."

The next pokemon Sabrina sent out was a Mr. Mime which wasn't a pokemon she'd actually battled before. Vali narrowed her eyes, "Balto, mind staying out?"

Balto barked and shook his head. While she normally would've recalled him and sent out Smaug, she was aware that Sabrina had likely taught Mr. Mime teleport which would put Smaug into the same position as before. Thankfully, Mr. Mime could only use the move a limited number of times compared to the Abra and Ralts-line more so the former than the latter. She just needed to force it into using teleport until it couldn't and then send out Smaug if Mr. Mime managed to knock out Balto. Mr. Mime sent a Psybeam towards Balto who dodged the colorful beam and sent back a Flamethrower in retaliation. Mr. Mime used either Barrier or Light Screen causing the damage done by Balto's to be halved. She glanced at Sabrina than back at Mr. Mime realizing that she'd probably have to force the jester-like pokemon to teleport if she wanted to use Smaug on the off-chance Balto was taken out.

Balto used Double Team while using Extreme Speed and Flamethrower. Mr. Mime kept using Barrier or Light Screen to halve the damage while attacking with Psybeam. While Balto was able to cause damage, it would take awhile for them to take down Mr. Mime which made Vali a little irritated. Why couldn't Sabrina have sent out a Jinx or Alakazam? Okay, she knew why Sabrina hadn't sent out a Jinx given that there were two fire-types that could take it out somewhat easily. She couldn't wait until her Houndour egg to hatch if only so she could deal with pokemon like Mr. Mime that were able to spam certain moves without much trouble. Inwardly growling, she looked at Sabrina with a deadpan expression. Sabrina had the gall to just smile warmly at her and she bit back the growl that wanted to leave her throat. This was probably payback for the first match, she could understand that even if it still left her quite frustrated.

Balto shared her irritation when he let out a loud howl losing his cool after Mr. Mime managed more than a few lucky hits. She felt a bit sorry for the Mr. Mime when Balto decided to end things quickly and use one of the moves that one of her other pokemon, Arwen most likely, taught him since she definitely didn't remember teaching him Toxic. He released a blast of foul looking sludge that looked more like a dark magenta than the deep amethyst it was supposed to be. She would need to give him the TM later on just to give him a better understanding of the move. Due to the poison-type nature of the move, Toxic passed through Mr. Mime's barriers and splattered all over the psychic jester. Mr. Mime let out a harsh cry of disgust and quickly began trying to get the sludge off of itself before the poison could seep in. As Mr. Mime was more distracted by the Toxic to maintain his defensive walls, Balto raced forward in his second Flare Blitz of the day and slammed into the poison covered pokemon.

Balto managed to fight the recoil long enough to knock Mr. Mime out with an Iron Tail. Vali congratulated Balto as he trotted over to her slowly while Sabrina returned Mr. Mime, "Good job, Balto," Balto let out a tired bark as he reached her, "Did you learn Toxic from Arwen?" Balto nodded with a slightly guilty expression, "I'm fine with that so long as you taught her something in return though I will be giving you the TM just to cover all our bases, Alright?"

Balto nuzzled her lightly and Vali returned him. Vulpix rushed towards her while Eevee followed at a sedated pace with Steven. She bent down and picked Vulpix up, "Did you enjoy watching the battles?" Vulpix yipped and wagged his tail, "I'm glad to hear it. Once we get you cleared with Nurse Joy, we'll see about you battling."

Vulpix licked her cheek excitedly as Steven said, "Well done, Vali."

"Thank you, Steven," Vali grinned at him as she gently rubbed between Eevee's ears, "I thought I'd end up losing my temper during that last battle though,"

"Most tend to when faced with Mr. Mime," Sabrina commented as she made her way over, "It would seem our meditation lessons have been helping with more than guarding your mind,"

"Probably," Vali agreed as Sabrina held out the Marsh Badge.

"Here is the Marsh Badge, you've earned it," Sabrina said as Vali stood up and took the badge feeling excitement fill her, "Just two more badges and you'll be able to compete in the League Conference,"

"Thank you for the battle, Sabrina," Vali said as she clenched the badge in her hand, "Do you think we could have another battle before Steven and I leave Saffron? A one on one,"

"Oh?" Sabrina looked at her curiously, "May I ask why?"

Vali offered the gym leader a small frown, "I won the first match on a fluke."

Sabrina gained a look of realization, "I see. You wish to battle again in order to feel that you deserve the badge," Vali nodded firmly, "I do not see a problem with that. I assume you wish to use your Charizard for the battle?"

"He will be a bit irritated with me for not being able to actually be able to battle this time around," Vali explained with a small grimace.

"It would give me a chance to battle with one of the pokemon I received during the exchange," Sabrina mused with a light smile, "Very well, we shall battle tomorrow as I only have one challenger then,"

They spoke a bit more before Steven, Vali, Vulpix, and Eevee left the Saffron City gym. Steven spoke as they walked, "I didn't know Balto knew Toxic."

"I didn't either," Vali replied with a slight smile, "Arwen taught him at some point. I really need to scan everyone to see if they've learned any new moves. Maybe after we get our eighth gym badge, I'll have them teach each other any moves they can learn not to mention hit Celadon to pick up a few more TMs,"

Vali knew that most of her pokemon had moves that each other could learn either natural, through move tutors, or TMs. While the process wouldn't exactly be streamlined and some of her pokemon would probably be missing a few details, it would still allow them to learn the moves. She would have to see if Professor Oak would mind allowing her pokemon to train with his or see if Lt. Surge would mind her learning under him again. If not, she could see if Koga would be willing to let her do a small trial of the offer he gave her.

* * *

To Vali's surprise and slight happiness, Lance was actually in Saffron and would be Sabrina's challenger tomorrow. She quickly jumped at the chance to get advice for dealing with Empress. Lance looked over the Bagon who was being held up in the air by one of his Dragonair, "She's definitely prideful."

"Professor Oak's Dragonite kicked her ass when she got frustrated during training and headbutted me into a tree," Vali commented earning a wide-eyed look from Lance, "Dragonite was prepared to kill or maim her for it until I stepped in," She rubbed her ribs where Empress had hit her, "While we managed to reach a compromise of sorts, she is kind of..."

"Struggling to keep from getting her head stuck up her own ass," Lance finished with a small snort as Empress struggled against Dragonair angerly trying to Bite the dragon, "Younger dragons tend to have that problem especially when born in the wild. You might want to have Smaug or Balto beat her into the ground when she gets too big headed,"

Vali inwardly winced having guessed that was the case, but not wanting to actually do that to one of her pokemon, "I figured."

Lance gave her a sympathetic look, "I know it isn't a thought you cherish, but Empress needs to learn that you won't let her get away with pulling this stuff especially while she's so young. Otherwise, she'll turn on you once she's become a Salamence."

Vali took a deep breath as she steeled herself, "I know."

"Other than that, you aren't doing a bad job training her up. Bagon don't have the largest natural move set," Lance looked back at Empress, "For now, I'd suggest working on her jaw strength to teach her Crunch and upgrading that Ember into a Flamethrower. Focus Energy would be a good idea as well,"

"Focus energy would mean having her meditate or something along those lines, right?" Vali clarified since that wasn't a move any of her pokemon actually used.

"Yup," Lance got closer and looked at Empress' paws, "She needs to make the claws on her paws a bit longer and a lot sharper if she's going to learn Dragon Claw while still a Bagon," He backed up after taking a closer look at Empress' over all body and motioned for his Dragonair to put the prideful Bagon onto the ground, "She should be able to learn Zen Headbutt pretty soon too. Other than that, she's very healthy and might evolve in a couple of months once you start battling with her,"

Empress attempted to headbutt Lance only to be swatted away by the red haired teen's Dragonair. Dragonair hissed at Empress before turning to nuzzle her trainer cooing over him. Lance reached up to run his hands along her smooth scales. Empress got up with a low growl, but didn't try to attack Lance again. Instead, she stomped over to Vali and glared up at her trainer. Bending down, she rubbed Empress' head, "I get that you don't like being tossed around, but you did try to attack her trainer which means she's well in her right to hit you," Empress let out a low grumble, "Besides, he's helping me figure out what to teach you next."

"Let's trade numbers, Vali," Lance said as he finally finished loving on Dragonair, "This way we'll be able to talk if you're having any trouble with Empress,"

"Sure," Vali stood up and took out her pokenav.

They exchanged numbers before heading back inside after returning their pokemon. Steven looked between them when they entered the lounge, "How'd it go?"

"Empress is definitely a prideful brat, but nothing Vali shouldn't be able to handle so long as she listens to my advice," Lance said as Vali walked over to sit down beside Steven and steal Vulpix back from him.

Vulpix nuzzled into her with a soft bark. Vali scratched behind his ears, "How'd everything go in here?"

"Just fine, Nurse Joy gave me this to give to you," Steven produced a file and held it out to Vali.

Vali looked through it with a soft hum making note that she'd have to up Vulpix's food intake and add a few supplements to it. Nurse Joy cleared Vulpix for some beginning exercises once the white fully vanished from his tail which shouldn't be more than two weeks away. She would need to start making up a training plan for him then. Closing the file, she hugged Vulpix, "You're a healthy boy, aren't you?"

Vulpix barked and wagged his tail enjoying the attention his mother figure was giving him and the fact that he'd made her happy. Lance let out a loud laugh, "He's pretty easy to make happy, huh?"

"So far," Vali looked at Lance, "He can be a pretty big brat sometimes too,"

"All baby pokemon can be," Lance shook his head, "So Cinnabar is next for you two?"

"Yes. We'll probably be stopping by the Research lab while we're there as well," Steven said as he looked at something on his pokenav, "My father wants me to get a feel for the place seeing as we're planning on making a joint project with them,"

Vali settled Vulpix beside her, "Anything interesting happen when you were in Cinnabar, Lance?"

"Not really, you'll have some trouble finding the gym since Blaine got pretty annoyed with being challenged by tourists," Lance grinned a bit, "Let's just say that the battlefield is in a very interesting place and you'll probably never battle anywhere just like it,"

Eyeing the amber eyed red-head, Vali wondered over what he meant before inwardly shrugging since they'd end up finding out soon enough, "Where are you going after Saffron, Lance?"

"I'm going to train for awhile before heading to Viridian," Lance answered as he dropped into the couch opposite of her, "I still have time before needing to get that last badge,"

"You might want to stop by Pallet Town and visit Professor Oak," Vali advised earning a raised eyebrow, "Lectures might not be for everyone, but Professor Oak has trained and still has the loyalty of a Champion level Dragonite not to mention a Charizard. Since you're aiming to be the next Champion of Kanto and Johto, you might find some benefit from learning under him for a little while. Champions don't just battle and take care of threats to the region, they're a big part of the government as well,"

Lance let out a low groan, "I'm going to drown in paperwork, aren't I?"

"Probably since you're planning to be the Champion of two regions rather than one," Vali grinned at him, "And you can't just shove it all off on your Elite Four since they've got a lot of responsibilities as well," Lance actually pouted at her, "If I do end up being one of your Elite Four, I am not doing any of your paperwork,"

"Even if I bribed you with training tips and battles?" Lance asked with wide eyes.

Steven snorted at that, "You'd be better off bribing her with an Amaura or some hard to get fire-type."

"Seriously?" Lance looked at Steven then at Vali, "How the hell would I get an Amaura?"

"That's something you'd need to figure out, Mr. Future Champion of two Regions," Vali took out a brush and began brushing Vulpix's fur earning a low purr-like sound from her not so little fox.

* * *

Sabrina and Vali once more stood across from one another on the battlefield. Steven had been joined by Lance in the stands. The referee called out, "This is a one-on-one battle between Sabrina Hino of Saffron City and Valkyrie Potter-Black of Pallet Town. No substitutions are allowed, the match will end when a pokemon is either knocked unconscious or can no longer continue battling safely. Trainers release your pokemon!"

Sabrina sent out a rather odd pokemon that Vali did not recognize. It is a bipedal feline pokemon with a human-like posture, finger-less appendages, and two tails. Its fur predominantly dark blue with white accents. Its ears are mostly blue with some white accents and the tips are pointed straight. The tuft of fur that sat between the pokemon's ears was white and in a straight diagonal style. The collar of fur around the pokemon's neck is white and in a pointy style. The pokemon's eyes are spring green with darker green pupils. Each of the pokemon's tails have a white stripe just before ending in white and ended in a point. The ends of the pokemon's arms and legs are white. She took out her pokedex and scanned it.

 _Meowstic, the_ _Constraint Pokemon. When in danger, Meowstic raises its ears and releases enough psychic power to grind a 10-ton truck into dust. The eyeball patterns on the interior of its ears emit psychic energy. It keeps the patterns tightly covered because that power is too immense. Male and female Meowstic have diffrent appearances with the male being mostly blue and the female being mostly white. They are the evolved form of Espurr. Male Meowstic are more defensive in nature while females are more offensive._

 _This Meowstic is male._

Vali grinned a bit, "He looks handsome Sabrina. Which region does he come from?"

"The Kalos region," Sabrina answered as the Meowstic smiled at Vali's compliment.

"Cool!" Vali released Smaug who looked at his opponent with a low growl and gave her a look, "He might not be big, but he's definitely not going to be an easy opponent, Smaug. Let's do our best, okay?" Smaug let out a low huff and narrowed his eyes at Meowstic, "Start off with Sunny Day then Flamethrower."

Smaug raised his head and released an orb of light into the air. The artificial sun began to heat up the gym clearing away any lingering chill from the winter weather outside. Smaug released a powerful Flamethrower towards Meowstic who nimbly dodged the attack and retaliated with Psybeam. Smaug used Dragon Pulse to block and overpower the Psybeam causing Meowstic to cry out in shock as the attack hit him. While the damage might've been halved thanks to his Psybeam, the attack still caused damage. Meowstic was sent skidding back as Smaug quickly took to the air using what limited space had been granted to him and slammed into the cat-like pokemon with his Dual claws sending Meowstic flying backward. Meowstic managed to soften the blow with Light Screen before using Disarming Voice making Smaug cry out and back away from Meowstic rather than follow through with the attack. Sabrina called out, "Meowstic, Thunder Wave and Psyshock."

Meowstic released two waves of energy that slammed into Smaug making him cry out in pain. A grimace formed on Vali's lips when electricity danced along Smaug's scales even after Thunder Wave had faded, "Smaug, use Dragon Pulse."

Smaug released the dragon-type attack with a growl and Meowstic used Light Screen to allow himself time to move out of the way. Meowstic retaliated with Psyshock and Disarming voice making Smaug roar in pain as he gripped his head. Static raced along his scales making the dragon-like fire-type stiffen as his muscles began to flex wildly, Meowstic used Psybeam while Smaug was unable to move. The colorful beam slammed into Smaug's chest sending him skidding backward. When the attack stopped, the area on Smaug's chest was bleeding and he fell to his knees with a grunt. Vali barely managed to resist the urge to rush towards him, "Smaug!" Smaug pushed himself up with a loud growl as his tail flame began to flare up, "Can you continue?" Smaug nodded while spitting an ember towards the ground and giving Meowstic the evil eye, "Smaug, Smokescreen. Do whatever you need to after that."

Smaug nodded and began hacking up smoke before diving into the cloud. Meowstic let out a yowl of pain as he was sent flying out of the cloud not too long later. Smaug sent out a Dragon Pulse after him. Meowstic managed to put up a Light Screen, but it shattered far too quickly to do much good. Meowstic cried out in pain as the Dragon Pulse slammed into him. When Smaug let the attack fade away, Meowstic dropped onto the ground with a soft grunt. Meowstic tried to push himself up for a few moments before falling to the ground leading the Referee to call out, "Winner Valkyrie Potter-Black of Pallet Town."

The cloud of smoke was quickly cleared away as Smaug stumbled out of it towards her. Vali rushed over to him, "You did it, Smaug!" Smaug grinned a bit before shuddering as electricity raced across his scales, "Let's get you to Nurse Joy."

Vali returned him and placed his ball into its place on her belt. Sabrina returned Meowstic and they shook hands after meeting in the middle. She smiled at the gym leader, "Thank you for the battle, Sabrina. I definitely feel like I earned my gym badge now."

"Thank you for battling Meowstic, I now know where exactly he stands," Sabrina replied as they released each other's hands.

"That battle was awesome!" Lance crowed as he jogged up, "Smaug's grown really strong since we last saw one another. Maybe we can battle before you leave Saffron, Vali,"

"Probably not since we're leaving pretty soon," Steven said as he walked up carrying Vulpix with Eevee padding beside him.

Lance frowned at Steven before looking at Vali, "Do you want to battle, Vali?"

"Next time we see each other," Vali saw the disappointment form in Lance's eyes at her reply, "Steven's right. We've got to leave soon if we're going to be able to get our last two badges and have a decent amount of time to train before the Conference. If you're still at Professor Oak's when I'm in Pallet Town, we can have our battle then,"

Lance frowned a bit before nodding, "Sounds good, I guess."

* * *

Steven frowned at Lance when the dragon master-in-training hugged Vali. He narrowed his eyes at Lance when the red head shot a smirk at him over Vali's shoulder. Biting back the urge to growl, he felt a little happy when Vali pulled away from Lance, "It was nice seeing you, Lance."

"You too, Vali," Lance grinned at her, "It was fun despite only being a couple of days,"

"Yeah. I can't wait until we've got a chance to battle since it'll be a lot of fun," Vali moved to stand next to him easing away some of the annoyance he was feeling towards Lance for reason he wasn't too sure about, "See you, Lance,"

"See you, Vali," Lance looked at him with an odd look in his eye, "Steven, watch over her and yourself," He nodded to the red head while feeling a bit offended that Lance had felt the need to ask, "Call me if you're having trouble or just want to talk,"

Vali nodded with a light grin, "Sure thing. Call me or message me if you want to talk too."

With that, they left Lance behind and began leaving Saffron City. Steven shoved his hands into his pockets feeling glad that it'd be awhile before they'd be seeing Lance again. It wasn't that he didn't like the red head, but something about the amber-eyed dragon master-in-training got on his nerves. He glanced towards Vali noticing the slightly distracted expression on her face and the slight pale tint to her cheeks. Knowing what she was likely thinking about, he commented, "So Vermilion City. Are you going to be okay?"

"I should be fine," Vali shot him a weak smile that only brought the feeling of guilt towards what happened to rise up again, "We aren't going to stay long after all,"

"I mean we could go to Fuchsia since they do have ships going to Cinnabar," Steven offered not wanting Vali to be uncomfortable.

Vali shook her head with a frown, "That would put us back awhile since we'd have to go through Celadon City, Vermilion would be a lot faster and cheaper around this time of year. Cinnabar sees a lot of traffic this time of year since people are trying to wait out the cold weather. It's also a lot more straight forwards since there aren't many islands on the way to Cinnabar from Vermilion unlike Fuchsia."

Steven could tell by the look in Vali's eyes and the way her jaw clenched that she wasn't going to let him talk her out of it. She probably wanted to do it for other reasons, but didn't feel like sharing them. With that in mind, he reluctantly nodded, "Alright. We'll go through Vermilion."

They walked out of Saffron City and began walking along the road to Vermilion. Vali spoke after a few minutes, "Steven, what was going on between Lance and you?"

"What do you mean?" Steven looked at her in confusion.

Vali bent down to let Vulpix walk since he was beginning to fuss a bit, "Well, Lance and you were pretty tense around each other the whole time. You also didn't seem very happy to see Lance either," She looked at him with a frown, "Did Lance do something to make you angry?"

Steven shook his head at that, "It's not that, Vali."

Steven didn't know how to explain that Lance irritated him whenever the red head was around Vali. Vali tilted her head a bit, "Then what's going on?" She didn't give him a chance to figure out an answer, "Are you annoyed at losing to him during the tournament?"

"Yes," Steven would admit that the reminder did annoy him somewhat.

"I can understand that," Vali grinned a bit, "Though wasn't your battle with him a lot of fun too?"

Steven nodded with a small smile, "It was. I wish that I'd had my partner with me at the time since we might've actually won."

Vali turned the conversation to the battle that he'd had against Lance and just how awesome it had been to watch the replay of. Steven was grateful that he wouldn't have to try and explain that it wasn't just the battle that left him annoyed with Lance. Especially since he didn't know how to explain it or even why he'd been so annoyed with Lance, he was probably going to have a headache if he dwelled on it.

* * *

Curling her fingers through Balto's fur, Vali walked with Steven down to the Vermilion City docks which were actually a little bit outside of the city. The scent of the sea and open areas outside of the boats helped ease away the nerves that had started to build up since entering Vermilion City. She looked at each of the ships with some sense of shock at just how many were currently docked despite the winter tourist season in Vermilion dying down. Steven spoke as they headed to the ticket office where they'd be looking for a ride to Cinnabar, "Have you ever been on a boat before, Vali?"

"Twice though they were merely row boats," Vali looked between the large cargo and cruise ships wondered where each of them were going, "Sirius was planning to take me with him to Almia to go to the Ranger School they have set up there, but that was before I decided to become a pokemon trainer,"

"So you could have been a ranger?" Steven asked as they walked past a couple of Machoke carrying some heavy looking crates towards one of the ships.

Vali hummed lightly, "Yeah, I actually wanted to be one after Professor Oak explained what they actually did," She leaned into Balto who looked at her, "But I fell in love with pokemon training and the idea of having an entire family of pokemon partners kind of trumps only having a single partner pokemon," She grinned at Balto who let out a low huff and looked forward, "I'm not sure who I would've chosen as my partner pokemon though it probably would've been Balto despite Growlithe and Arcanine not being popular for Ranger work."

"They aren't?" Steven looked at her in surprise.

Vali shook her head, "Nope. I'm not even sure why, but Sirius said it had something to do with traditions. I think it might have to do with the Jenny family much like how you rarely find any of members of the Chansey-line with a ranger."

"Huh, now that you've said it, I can't recall ever meeting a ranger with a Growlithe or Chansey before," Steven murmured softly.

"You'd be surprised what pokemon aren't allowed to become partners for a ranger," Vali had gone through the list when Sirius had been given it, "And that's not counting the list of Legendaries,"

"Now I'm curious," Steven said with a light smile.

"I have the list written down in my pokedex somewhere," Vali would need to dig through it later or just get Professor Oak to look it up for her, "Looks like we're here,"

* * *

After a day of searching and Vali revealing that she could haggle thanks to trips to the local farmers market with Delia, they were able to find a ship traveling to Cinnabar for a reasonable price. It meant sharing a room as well as helping out on the ship during the duration of the trip, but all parties were satisfied with the arrangement. Vali and Steven didn't mind sharing a room after all not to mention that helping out on the ship would keep them both from getting bored especially if they could get their pokemon in on it. The trip would take a week mostly due to the ice likely to be floating around the ocean near Vermilion right now, but it would be a lot better than the month it'd take to get from Fuchsia to Cinnabar.

Vali helped out with cooking in the kitchens and took to learning how to navigate after expressing an interest in it to the Captain. Steven did odd jobs around the ship as well as helped navigate having learned at some point during his past journeys. Both of them helped destroy the large bits of ice and kept the wild pokemon from damaging the ship, it proved to be interesting training for all the pokemon involved. Pele managed to learn Flamethrower and Sunny Day under Balto's careful instruction which really helped to get rid of the ice. Smaug ended up using Pele as weight training by picking up the Numel and flying her ahead of the ship to melt the largest pieces of ice into something more manageable. It was interesting and somewhat funny to watch leading to quite a few photos being taken by Vali when she wasn't working on her Research Paper or helping out around the ship. Unfortunately, the trip wasn't all fun because a pod of Gyarados attacked the ship on the fourth day of their trip.

* * *

Rain poured from the sky making the deck slick as pokemon belonging to those on board the ship fought against the pod of Gyarados, the storm was sudden which meant that one of the atrocious pokemon had summoned it. The size of the pod was larger than you'd usually find in nature meaning that one of the Gyarados had likely been the pokemon of a trainer before. The faintest flicker of fear raced through Vali as she struggled to keep her balance when the ship was rammed into by something. Elrond and Pippin were shooting off electrical attacks alongside any other electric-type pokemon on board which managed to keep the worst of the Gyarados from loosing some of their more powerful attacks. She lost her footing as a large wave slammed into the boat and went sliding. Pain blared through her right side as she slammed into the bars of the railing, she struggled to breath for a few seconds as more water splashed against her.

Pushing herself up, Vali heard a cry of pain and terror from Empress causing her head to snap towards the source. Eyes widening, she took in Empress flying towards the railing after being smacked by one of the attacking Gyarados. Forcing back the pain, she slipped across the deck while using her magic to slow Empress down long enough to catch her. All the breath in her body whooshed out as Empress slammed into the fire-type master-in-training. Even with magic playing a part, she was definitely going to be feeling that in the morning. Empress looked at her with fear filled crimson eyes and she hugged the prideful little dragon tightly, "It's going to be okay, Empress-"

The boat was slammed violently towards the other side sending Vali falling backwards. She twisted her body to take the impact while barely managing to keep a hold of Empress. She was very glad that Vulpix was safely inside his pokeball right now otherwise he would definitely end up having nightmares and probably develop a fear towards water. She slammed into the railings again causing pain to blare through her body once more. She kept hold of Empress who pressed close to her trembling harshly. If it weren't for how much she was sliding around and how likely it would slip through her fingers, she would've returned Empress. Pushing against the railing, she got up slowly as pain shot through her body and began moving towards the center of the deck. She nearly lost her footing, but a warm energy wrapped around her body. She made it to the center of the deck where Steven stood and almost collapsed against the mast. Steven looked at her in concern as he shouted over the rain storm, "Vali?"

Thunder boomed and a powerful bolt of lightning slammed into the Gyarados earning roars of pain, she would've covered her ears had Empress not been in her arms. Finally, the Gyarados began backing off as some of their number sank into the water unconscious. One of the Gyarados gave a parting shot before doing so and used some kind of attack that caused the ship to begin tipping over. Vali slipped across the deck towards the seething ocean below as shouts echoed around her. Steven shouted over the roar of the storm, but she couldn't hear what he was saying. Looking at Empress' terrified face and feeling the little dragon's claws dig into her skin through the fabric of her shirt, the fear that had been pounding through her veins vanished as determination lit a fire inside of her core.

With a deep breath, Vali reached for her magic and pulled demanding that it right the ship. For a second, it felt like her magic wasn't going to respond and terror began filling her until it _moved._ It flowed out of her and through the ship to the water below. She felt it as her magic gathered together some of the water and made it almost solid before using it to right the ship. She slammed into the railings for the third and final time as black edged across her vision. When the ship finally righted itself, her magic let go of the water and returned to her as she lost consciousness.

* * *

 _A sorrowful song echoed through the air. The almost apologetic notes swirled heavily. A screeching shriek of anger cut through the song. Angry red flames seethed as another shriek sounded._

Consciousness returned to Vali, she inwardly groaned as her head pounded alongside what felt like every part of her body save for her face. She tried to remember what happened and jolted into a sitting position when it all came back. Pain promptly stabbed through her making a cry of pain slip from between her lip as she laid back down. She heard a low woof and felt a cold nose nuzzle into her cheek. Turning her head, she found Balto laying beside the bed, "H-hey, Balto."

Elrond's voice floated through Vali's mind before she could even form a question, " _You've been unconscious for a day."_

'Where am I?' Vali asked him as Balto let out a low whine.

 _"Your and Steven's room on the ship,"_ Elrond answered as he floated over, " _I have informed Metagross that you're awake and they're telling everyone else. How badly do you hurt?"_

'Everything save for my face hurts like someone took a metal baseball bat to my body,' Vali answered earning a low hum, 'My head's pounding, but I'm fairly sure that's from my vision,'

Balto whined and Elrond translated it, " _The dog heard you cry out in pain before you laid back down,"_ Vali just offered him the memory of her waking up to Elrond who shuddered visibly, " _I see. I will inform Metagross."_

'Thank you,' Vali closed her eyes for a few moments before remembering Empress, 'Empress?'

 _"Physically, she has a few bruises. She has been very worried over you and had to be restrained to allow your injuries to be taken care of,"_ Elrond answered in a soft tone as he settled on the bed beside her pillow, ' _All of us have been,'_

Vali sent Elrond some apologetic feelings before asking, 'The egg?'

 _"Perfectly fine, Claydol kept it secure the entire time,"_ Elrond answered causing Vali to relax, " _Everyone is fine if a bit scratched up. The sea wyrms haven't resurfaced,"_

* * *

Vali was heavily bruised all over her body, but didn't have any major injuries save for her right arm which had a hairline fracture. She would need to go to the hospital and have it checked out fully just to make sure that was all it was. With her injured arm, she couldn't help out as much around the ship not that anyone wanted her to after she'd somehow managed to save them all. Steven and their pokemon helped her whenever she actually needed it. Steven had taken to writing her research paper for her while she dictated everything. While it was somewhat boring not being able to help around the ship, she didn't mind using the break time she'd been given to actually rest and meditate when she could.

Empress had become quite the worry wort and over-protective of Vali which led to her calling Lance. Lance answered as she watched Empress chase around some of the Wingull that had decided to land near Vali, "Hi, Vali."

"Hey, Lance," Vali offered him a tired smile earning a look of concern.

"You okay?" Lance asked with a small frown.

"The ship Steven and I are taking to Cinnabar got attacked by a larger than normal pod of Gyarados," Vali explained what had happened and what habits that Empress had been forming since then.

Lance shook his head, "Your luck, Vali, is insane."

"Blame whatever ancestor of mine that got blessed/cursed with it," Vali replied with an eye-roll, "So any idea what the hell's going on?"

While Vali didn't mind Empress not acting like a little bitch, she was somewhat unnerved by the change that had seemingly occurred overnight. Lance hummed softly and shifted his pokegear, "Simple, you managed to win her devotion which will definitely make things easier on you when training her."

"But isn't that a bit quick?" Vali asked as Empress trotted back over to her.

Lance snorted softly, "Not really, Vali. Empress already viewed you as hers thanks to being her trainer and respected you even if her pride got into the way of it. Devotion was probably already forming, but hadn't had a reason to stick just yet."

Vali felt less unnerved, "It's still a bit weird."

"Yeah, but just be happy she won't end up turning on you unless you're abusing her," Lance offered her a sympathetic smile, "Once you're healed, she should calm down. If not, have Smaug and Balto talk with her,"

"Thanks, Lance," Vali had a feeling it wouldn't be that easy, "How are you?"

"Not bad, I definitely prefer Kanto to Johto in the winter since it's a lot less cold here," Lance began to say something else only to be cut off by an explosion, "Vali, I need to let you go,"

"Stay safe, Lance," Vali told him before the call ended.

Empress cooed at Vali as she put her pokenav away. She smiled at the little dragon and rubbed her armored head.

* * *

Cinnabar island was warm and Vali immediately liked it a lot despite the amount of tourists running around. After visiting the pokemon center and dropping off their pokemon as well as her egg, they headed to the hospital to have her arm seen to. The fracture wasn't severe, but she would be wearing a sling while it healed up. Rather than try to find the Cinnabar Gym or Blaine immediately, they decided to take a few days to relax and finish recovering from the scare caused by the Gyarados.


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997:** **This chapter was a doozy, I put in more battles than usual and had a bit of trouble with some parts. That being said, I've got maybe two chapters before the start of the Conference, so anyone want to see a specific moment? Ask away.**

 **Reviews:**

 **AyameKitsune : Hope you enjoy this one too.**

 **KyuubiChild717:** **Glad to hear it.**

 **Twister60 : Glad you liked it.**

 **PhenioxMaster : Happy Late birthday.**

 **Valentine Vulpes: I'll do my best.**

 **comodo50 : Yes, but I needed to give her a last name and chose that since they don't really list one for her. Flying types aren't allowed because of the large buildings and high winds. Giovanni's mother was the leader, but now he's going to be though it probably won't be revealed just yet. I was going to put in that bit with Delia and Sirius, but it just wouldn't be written. **

**Inumiru : My job pretty much limits the amount I get to write and with this story, I try to make it amazing which makes is difficult sometimes. **

**Pattou59 : No.**

 **ThunderClaw03 : Once a month.**

 **EternalKnight219 : Eventually.**

 **NotRob : Unfortunately no, that isn't the current plan.**

 **frankieu : Heh, yeah.**

 **greenespeon1995 : One that he isn't acknowledging.**

 **yachiru-chan92 : Glad to hear it.**

 **Dark Wolf of Teros: Here it is.**

 **Shayde Marshall : I'm really glad to hear it.**

 **The Lord Of Elves: Not actually, Vali couldn't really focus on Pippin evolving at the time, but she did make sure to show how happy she was off screen.**

 **gabyvu87 : Cool *Grins at you* Awe thanks, you're making me blush a bit.**

 **BioHazard82 : Hope you enjoy this one as well.**

 **agathaldcr : Yeah nope. Once a month only for the most part.**

 **LazyKid24 : She will go back, but it'll wait until after her last Gym Battle.**

 **amerdism : Because muse version of Vali jumps around and distracts me a lot, she can be pretty damn picky about everything in the chapter. I know trust me on that, but Vali's goal isn't to be in that kind of spot-light you know? She wants to have the security being an Elite would provide just not with the gigantic amount of press being a Champion would bring. Not to mention the gigantic amount of paperwork and other duties that go with the job, Vali does want to travel after all and being an Elite Four would allow for that.**

 **powermachine79 : Here's the next one, I hope you enjoy it.**

 **EmzTheSpirit : Here's the next chapter.**

 **Jostanos : Maybe or...*Leans forward and whispers* a certain legend wanted to test a certain someone...**

 **markus j. fox : I don't know about that since I really love Traveler, but I'm absolutely ecstatic that you love it. Yeah. Here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoy it.**

 **noshadowone : You don't like it, don't read it. Besides Steven isn't even looking at Vali like that and she isn't looking at him like that.**

 **Guest : Since I don't have a Switch, I won't be playing, but I do have a love for the new Water-type despite being a firm Fire-starter. Both would be fun, I'm mostly interested in seeing their final evolutions.**

 **thehelpinghand : I'm glad you love it. You should check out Traveler by The Straight Elf which is awesome. It helped me gain the courage to actually write this thing.**

 **KKR : Probably won't do that. **

**Sn : Not sure since most Regions are pretty cool, I might go with Kanto or Hoenn to be honest though Kalos is cool too. My pokemon would pretty much be an Arcanine/Ninetales, Charizard, Houndour, Typhlosion, Alolan Raichu, and Flareon. Fire-type trainer with a mix of other pokemon added in.**

 **Guest : Probably would be bad though it might go through a case by case thing too.**

 **cjm184 : Glad to hear you love it.**

* * *

Words: 19,349

* * *

Chapter 16

* * *

Vali watched as Vulpix worked through the obstacle course that Elrond had set up using pieces of driftwood and random junk that had washed up on the almost deserted part of the beach they'd managed to find. Since Nurse Joy had cleared Vulpix for some light training, she was going to start getting him into the swing of things and took some inspiration from Lt. Surge's obstacle course in order to do it. On the plus side of this, Vulpix's rather large amount of energy was burned out allowing some form of piece. Empress and Pele were working on their own little obstacle courses which differed depending on what she felt they needed to work on the most. Balto and Smaug were sparring together while Elrond worked with Pippin to master his newer attacks. Eevee was currently meditating on a nearby rock absorbing what energy he could get from the sun. Taking her eyes off of Vulpix for a moment when her pokenav chimed, she read the text that had been sent to her by Steven asking how things were going.

Steven was at the labs on the island exploring them and mostly getting a run down of how things were going there. A few representatives from his father's company were there as well mostly to ensure that no one thought that Devon Corp wasn't taking it seriously. She texted him back that everything was going alright and asked if he'd gotten bored. Steven replied that he wasn't bored mostly because one of the scientists was actually talking about how a fossil was excavated could effect how the pokemon was brought back. She asked him to get some notes on that since it sounded important and fairly interesting. After that was done, she focused back on everything going and noted that Vulpix was starting to get tired.

Vali called over Vulpix and gave him some oran berries mushed together with some charcoal. He ate it with a lot of vigor and gave her a pleading look asking for more. She let out a laugh and did so glad that she'd had Steven help her prepare everything before they parted ways for the day. Vulpix lapped up the moo-moo milk she gave him before curling up beside her for a little nap. She scratched behind his ears after cleaning everything up earning a soft purring sound. She stiffened a bit as she heard, "Are all those pokemon yours, Little Lady?"

Vali turned her head and found a man walking towards her. He was about the same height as Professor Oak and what hair he had was snowy white. He wore a white vest over a dark red long-sleeve and dark brown khaki pants. On his feet, he wore a pair of loafers. He had a pair of glasses with circular black-tinted lenses. A beautiful Ninetales walked beside him with it's eyes on Vulpix who slept peacefully beside her. She vaguely remembered seeing him before, but couldn't figure out where that was. Looking back at the man carefully, she said, "Yes, Sir. Your Ninetales is really beautiful, you must take great care of them."

"I do my best," The man chuckled lightly as his Ninetales' chest puffed up at the compliment, "She loves being groomed," He walked a bit closer and peered down at Vulpix, "How old is this little one?"

"He's just a few days off two months old," Vali answered as Ninetales trotted over and sniffed at her prompting the fire-type master-in-training to offer the fox a hand to sniff, "Nurse Joy gave me leave to start some light training with him,"

"Ah you're being careful, it's nice to see that some children these days aren't reckless," The man smiled a bit before looking at her other pokemon as his Ninetales licked at Vali's fingers and began nosing her hand, "I'm somewhat surprised to see a Bagon, a Numel, and a Luxio in Kanto though,"

Vali gave into Ninetales' request to be petted and began searching for the spot that would likely turn the fox into putty, "I got them both in the Safari-zone. Pele, my Numel, ended up catching herself. Empress, my Bagon, pretty much demanded that I catch her after observing me while I was in the area she'd claimed as her own. Pippin, my Luxio, got trapped in a log and ended up wanting to come along with me after I freed him," Vali found the spot she'd been looking for and her lap was suddenly filled with a purring puddle of creamy golden fur, "What brings you to the beach today, Sir?"

"Just walking around, Little Lady," The man looked at his Ninetales in surprise, "She normally doesn't let anyone new so close,"

Vali wondered if it was due to her inner flame as she said, "I've always had a way with fire-types, Sir. They tend to really like me and I love them a lot. I'm trying to become a fire-type master, you see."

"A good goal. Are you going to try for Champion?" The man asked as he moved to take a seat on the nearby bench.

Vali shook her head with a soft snort, "No way, I would probably drown in the paperwork I'd have to do," She smiled as Ninetales nuzzled into her stomach, "One of my friends is going to become the Champion. He's shooting for both the Kanto and Johto Champion titles. I'd prefer being an Elite Four especially since it'd mean I get the chance to travel unless I was needed."

"Any reason why?" The man asked her curiously.

"Being part of the League would make it easier to feed my pokemon and take care of them," Vali said as Ninetales slowly began to slump against her, "There's also the fact that as an Elite Four we'd be able to battle strong opponents, it'd be fun to fight strong opponents that would push my pokemon and I to our limits," She removed her hand from Ninetales as Empress took notice earning a whine from the kitsune, "I'm also doing it to become a fire-type master. It's my goal," Empress rushed over and growled at Ninetales who ignored the dragon, "Empress, be nice. She isn't hurting me," Empress gave her a look that expressed the little dragoness' doubt, "You won't hurt me, right Ninetales?" Ninetales nodded while standing up and moving back over to sit with her trainer, "Sorry about that, Empress is a bit protective of me after what happened on the way over here,"

"Oh?" The man looked at Empress who began checking over Vali.

"An unusually large pod of Gyarados attacked our ship," Vali explained as Empress sniffed at her arm, "No one died, but our ship almost tipped over. I got pretty beat up keeping this one from falling overboard,"

"I heard something about an attack like that," The man shook his head lightly, "I wonder what made them attack,"

"No idea," Vali sent Empress back over to her obstacle course who did so reluctantly with one last glare towards Ninetales, "I thought it might be that one or more of those Gyarados were abandoned by a trainer. They saw the ship after banding together and decided to take it out on the first humans they could," She checked her pokenav when it began to chime repeatedly and cut off the timer, "Looks like it's time for a change of pace," She stood up and called out, "Guys!" All her pokemon stopped working and turned to her with Empress nudging Pele to focus on her, "We're changing things up a bit. Balto laps around the beach. Smaug into the air. Everyone else try to hit the two with your ranged attacks. Eevee, Swift. Elrond throw things with Psychic. Empress, Ember. Pele, Flamethrower. Pippin, Spark. Got it everyone?" They nodded with Smaug giving her a minor glare, "Smaug, Pippin doesn't have many ranged attacks other than Thunder. If you don't want to get the ever loving shit shocked out of you with Thunder, you can't complain about him using Spark, so don't give me that look. If he can hit you with Spark, you're not flying fast enough."

Smaug grumbled, but took off with Balto barking as he began racing along the beach. Everyone got into position and began releasing their attacks when they had a chance. Pele used Earth Power as well to trip up Balto which was definitely something Vali hadn't been expecting, but would definitely work on with the Numel when they did some one on one training later on. She remembered the old man when he commented, "That's an interesting training method, you're getting those two to practice evading attacks and taking hits if one of your other pokemon manage to hit them. On the flip side, the other pokemon are strengthening their ability to use those attacks while also increasing their accuracy with moving targets. Not too shabby, you should try to teach that Luxio of yours some more attacks though."

"I'm going to, but it's finding ways to teach him them that's somewhat frustrating mostly because they don't learn too many attacks naturally," Vali looked back at him with a small frown, "Who are you exactly?"

"Someone who loves fire-types greatly," The man answered with a slight smirk, "And has lived on this island for a long time. Tell me, when do you plan to challenge Blaine?"

"In a month," Vali answered while narrowing her eyes as she tried to figure out who this guy was, "I want to make sure my pokemon are ready or as close as I can get them to being ready,"

"A good plan," The man eyed her as he stood up, "Despite being young, you're not rushing in like most trainers your age. That's an interesting trait,"

"What good is rushing in?" Vali was beginning to figure out who this was, "When pokemon battling isn't a game and being unprepared means that my team will get hurt when I could have prevented it by being careful, my team trust me to watch over them and ensure that they're prepared for our battles. As this is our second to last gym badge, the stakes are higher than ever and there is a good chance my pokemon will get badly hurt if we don't train hard before it," She realized who this guy was, "You're Blaine, aren't you? The gym leader of Cinnabar island,"

"Correct," Blaine let out a chuckle, "I wasn't expecting you to figure it out so soon,"

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Sir," Vali didn't really know how to react, "Uh...How did you know I was here?"

"Just call me Blaine, Little Lady," Blaine told her with a light smile, "I heard that you'd arrived on the island a few days ago and was surprised that you didn't come find me the moment you could. One would think you'd be eager to find out if you could apprentice under me,"

"We had a rough trip and everyone thought it would be a good idea to take some relaxation time," Vali explained wondering if that had ruined her chances, "My traveling companion, Steven Stone, and I were going to look for you later on today once he finished at the labs,"

Blaine looked a little amused, "I see. Tell me, why do you want to apprentice under me?"

Vali looked back at her pokemon as she sat down beside Vulpix and began petting him, "To be honest, I really want to learn more about fire-type pokemon and get experience dealing with pokemon like Magmar before I actually catch one. Since you're pretty much the most knowledgeable on the Magby-line, you are the best person to learn under. I love fire-types and helping my pokemon reach their full potential," She smiled as Vulpix shifted in his sleep to sprawl on his back and let her rub his stomach, "If I apprentice under you, I'd not only get a better understanding about fire-type pokemon, but also what it's like to be an Elite Four. If anyone knows what it's like to be an elite four and just how powerful my pokemon need to be, it would be you outside of the current ones."

"That's all?" Blaine asked as he sat back down on the bench.

Vali shook her head, "You have a lot of knowledge about fossil pokemon which is something I'm really interested in. I want to have my own Amaura and Aurorus at some point. They're my favorite fossil pokemon of all the ones that have been discovered so far," She thought about what else to say only to come up empty, "I guess the only other thing I can say is that you're a really amazing trainer and learning under you would be really cool. I think my pokemon and myself would really benefit from learning underneath you."

Blaine was silent for awhile allowing Vali to focus on the training going on. She had to get Smaug from trying to barbecue Pippin twice when her Luxio managed to get in a few lucky hits. Despite only using Spark, Pippin was starting to figure out how to use Charge while also attacking. It wasn't easy for Pippin mostly because his electrical storage wasn't used to doing two diffrent things at once. Once he got used to it, he wouldn't have as much trouble, but that would take time and quite a bit of concentration. She guessed he would probably be able to do it on a somewhat consistent basis once he evolved into a Luxray mostly because his electrical storage would be a lot bigger and able to the strain a lot better.

Blaine spoke once Vali had gotten Smaug flying again and pointed Pippin in the direction of Balto while pushing Empress to practice Dragon Rush on the Charizard, "It'll take me time before I make a decision on whether or not to take you on as an apprentice."

"That's fine, we only just met after all," Vali hadn't expected any concrete decisions from Blaine for awhile.

Blaine nodded to her as he looked at the pokemon training before him, "What are your plans for that Numel of yours? From what I've managed to figure out, you're more of a hit and run fighter. Numel and Camerupt aren't built for that."

"I'm trying to build up her speed for now," Vali explained as Vulpix began to stir, "I'm going to make her into a heavy hitter, but it won't be worth it if she can't move quickly," She smiled as Vulpix yawned and rubbed his muzzle before rolling onto his stomach, "Hey, Sleepyhead," Vulpix let out a happy yip as he got to his feet only to pause and turn towards Blaine, "Vulpix, this is Blaine. He's a Gym Leader. Ninetales is one of his pokemon,"

Vulpix ignored Blaine in favor of Ninetales having never seen another member of his species before. He slowly began padding towards Ninetales who eyed him with some amusement. Blaine and Vali stayed silent watching the interaction not knowing how it would go. Ninetales were loners that avoided most outside of those of their family groups and the chosen trainers that they decided to work with. This could go one of two ways, Ninetales could ignore Vulpix seeing him as little more than an intruder that didn't deserve her attention or she could pay attention to him and basically adopt the little kit as a family member. Seeing as Vulpix was under six-months old, it was more likely the second option would happen mostly because Ninetales was a trainers pokemon just like Vulpix.

Vulpix reached Ninetales and yipped softly wagging his tail giving the older kitsune a wide-eyed look. Ninetales eyed him for a few moments before lowering her head and sniffing him again. Vulpix began to scent the older kitsune as she did the same to him. When she was done, Ninetales manhandled Vulpix into sitting before her and began to groom the kit earning a laugh from the two trainers. Vali took a picture with her old camera that wasn't too hard to use with only one hand. Vulpix surprisingly stayed still and seemed to enjoy the attention Ninetales was giving him. Blaine reached into his pocket when it began to release a chiming sound and pulled out a pokegear before walking off a short distance.

Vali focused back on her pokemon in time to see Pippin trip over his own feet. He ended up knocking into Empress as Pele once again used Earth Power which sent the two fallen pokemon into Balto's running path. Balto managed to see them and jump in time to avoid a collusion only to end up losing his footing making him trip over a random tire. With an almighty splash, Balto landed in the ocean sending water flying. The water managed to land on her pokemon save for Vulpix and Smaug who were out of range. She took a picture of the scene and another when Balto pulled himself out of the water before giving into the need to laugh. If there was one thing she'd never seen before, it was a waterlogged Arcanine looking completely and utterly confused over what had just happened.

Vali heard a bark and saw Balto looking at her. She held up her hand to stall him knowing that the look in his eyes meant war. After stuffing the camera back into her pocket, she reminded him, "Balto, I need to stay dry and not do anything to make my arm take longer to heal."

Balto snorted as he jogged over and promptly shook off making Vali squeal as she backpedaled away from him. Vulpix and Ninetales let out sounds of annoyance with Ninetales sending a Flamethrower towards Balto in revenge for dousing her with water. Balto gave Ninetales a dirty look for all of five seconds before going dreamy eyed. Empress letting out a cry of anger followed by Pippin yowling in pain caused Balto and Vali to look at the rest of their team. Cursing softly when she saw Empress Bite Pippin, Vali shouted, "Elrond! Smaug! Separate them!"

Elrond grabbed Pippin with Psychic and pulled the bitten Luxio away from Empress the moment the Bagon let go. Smaug dove down and plucked Empress from the ground before flying up a few inches. Balto darted over and began barking at them all as Vali moved to check on Pippin who's right leg had been bitten. Empress had managed to bite through skin though thankfully the wound wasn't too deep though it still bled somewhat sluggishly. She returned him after promising to have Nurse Joy look at his injury. She let Smaug and Balto discipline the struggling Bagon her Charizard was carrying in favor of checking on her other pokemon. Everyone was fine save for Pele who's core temperature was lower than it should be. Vali called Balto over to her, "Balto, I want you to use Flamethrower on Pele. Not hot enough to do damage, I want it warm enough to help dry her off and heat her core temperature back up, Okay?" Balto nodded and did as she asked, "Elrond, Can you grab those towels I brought with us?"

Elrond brought them over and Vali began drying everyone off that needed it save for Empress. When everyone was dried off save for Empress, she had Smaug bring the Bagon down and began drying her off. She spoke as Empress grumbled softly, "Empress, you know that wasn't Pippin's fault anymore than it was Pele's," Empress growled at her, "I know him tripping over his own paws is annoying, but it isn't his fault, Empress. You remember what Surge told us, right? Pippin needs to learn how to get over his clumsiness and it won't be like this forever. He's doing his best to not be so clumsy and you attacking him isn't helping," Empress looked away from her, "No extra berries for you," Empress gave her a horrified look and she frowned at the dragon, "You caused an unnecessary injury, Empress. Had you two been practice battling, I wouldn't be angry, but you weren't. You attacked Pippin, a teammate and member of our family, which isn't allowed. Be glad you're not getting any extra berries this time."

Vali finished drying off Empress before returning her alongside everyone save for Elrond and Vulpix. Elrond helped pack everything up while she dried off Ninetales and Vulpix. She apologized to Ninetales, "Sorry about that, Balto probably didn't notice you."

Ninetales snorted as Vali finished drying her off. Blaine returned at that moment, "I suppose that finishes up your training for the day?"

"For now at least, I need to get Pippin to the Pokemon Center," Vali took her bag from Elrond thankful that Balto hadn't managed to get it wet.

"Here," Blaine held out a piece of paper and Vali took it from him, "This will help you find my gym,"

Vali looked at it and found a list of riddles, "Riddles? How will they help us find your gym?"

"They will," Blaine grinned at her, "Good luck, Valkyrie,"

"Vali, please," Vali requested earning a nod.

* * *

Steven looked at the list of riddles Vali had gotten from Blaine and had to shake his head, "How are these supposed to help us find Blaine?"

Kanto Gym Leaders were weird though Hoenn Gym Leaders could be too. Maybe it was an unknown requirement for becoming a Gym Leader, you had to be weird. Steven watched Vali rub Pippin's stomach and glanced at the bandage around Pippin's right foreleg. Vali followed his gaze and scowled to his surprise, "Empress used Bite on him despite them not being in a training match."

"What?" Steven saw Pippin's ears drop, "Why did she do that?"

"Pippin tripped and knocked into Empress. Pele was using Earth Power at the time, so the two ended up in the path Balto was running on," Vali explained as Steven wondered just how any of this would cause Empress to attack Pippin, "Balto managed to jump over them only to end up losing his footing on the sand. He ended up landing in the water somehow causing a big enough splash to drench everyone close to him,"

Vali paused in petting Balto to grab her camera and toss it to him. Steven looked through the pictures she'd taken today and had to chuckle at the look on Balto's face while he was sitting in the water, "Delia will probably love this one."

"I know. I'm going to ask her to add it to my portfolio," Vali answered with a grin, "Anyway, Empress blamed Pippin despite him not exactly being able to control where he trips. She isn't going to be getting any extra berries for the next few days. Depending on how she acts and if she apologizes, I'll either increase her punishment or decrease it,"

"That's all you're going to do?" Steven asked her with a frown.

Vali shook her head, "Balto and Smaug will be seeing over the rest of her punishment. Given that Balto is the leader of the pack, he'll likely be the one to oversee and decide the rest of her punishment."

Which made a lot of sense when Steven thought about it, Vali was ensuring that her pokemon were able to follow their instincts while still becoming 'domesticated'. He internally snorted at that thought as no pokemon could ever be considered domesticated regardless of what some people thought. Vali was also ensuring that Balto kept his place as her second and de-facto leader of her pokemon beneath his trainer. Smaug acted as the enforcer and 'beta' of Vali's pack of pokemon ensuring that there were two solid pokemon that listened to Vali making it less likely for any of the pokemon to challenge their trainer directly. It was actually pretty well thought out given that most of her pokemon were pack or family oriented pokemon. Out of her pokemon, Vali only had Empress, Smaug, and Terra as her non-family oriented species that only really interacted with their direct family/mates.

Steven nodded as he looked back at the list of riddles, "I wish them luck though I'd thought she'd gotten overreacting like that."

"As Lance said, Empress is pretty much a toddler in mentality and overreacting to things," Vali shook her head lightly, "Anyway, do you have any idea how to answer those? Riddles aren't something I'm good at dealing with,"

"I think so," Steven wasn't too bad at riddles though they weren't his favorite thing to deal with, "I'm still having trouble figuring out how this'll help us find Blaine's gym,"

"Maybe the answers to the riddles will give us clues to follow," Vali offered looking a little unsure with herself, "We have a month to find Blaine's gym and schedule our battles,"

"We'll take our time with each riddle," Steven decided as he looked over the twelve riddles on the list.

"We could talk to Nurse Joy as well," Vali stopped petting Pippin to grab her bottle of lemonade, "Since the main one has been here for a long time and the others have been here for at least a year, they probably have experience with answering Blaine's riddles or at least has some knowledge of how to do it," She drank some of it, "Even if they can't really help, they'd be able to point us in the right direction. After all, Blaine can't make things too difficult or he'd get into trouble with the League,"

Steven nodded with a small frown, "But why hide his gym?"

"Because he's tired of the fake challengers," Vali rolled her eyes.

"'Fake challengers'?" Steven asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Tourists that are only battling a gym leader for the novelty of it," Vali explained as she set down her drink and returned to petting Pippin, "The fact Blaine is a former Elite Four member makes it worse. If Agatha retired from the Elite Four and became a gym leader, she'd probably face the same thing," The fire-type master-in-training snorted and shook her head with a soft laugh, "Nah, she'd probably scare them away if they tried,"

Steven could understand that though he had to ask, "Have you ever met Agatha?" Vali looked at him in surprise, "It's just by how you speak about her that makes me assume you've met her."

Vali nodded as she settled a bit more heavily against the couch, "Yeah, I met her. A few months after Sirius and I arrived. She had come with some officials from the League," She frowned softly as her eyes became a bit hazy, "She was there to ensure that Sirius and I weren't a threat to Kanto. Ghosts have a really odd way of knowing when you're lying," She shivered slightly and focused on him, "Agatha isn't exactly the nicest person, but I like her. She's really cool,"

Steven wondered over what Vali meant by ghost-types being able to tell when you're lying before deciding to ask later since it didn't seem like a pleasant memory. He set down the list of riddles, "Have you seen her since then?"

Vali shook her head, "No, she doesn't spend time in Pallet Town mostly because of Professor Oak and her disliking him, so I never really saw her again. Then again, I doubt she really remembers me. I was still pretty lost in myself at the time," She picked up her lemonade, "So how did your visit to the labs go?"

* * *

Pippin winced as he put pressure on his injured foreleg, but pushed past the pain in order to make his way to the window. He glanced behind himself at the bed when Vali laid practically buried beneath his teammates save for Smaug and Balto. All of them were firmly within the realms of Darkrai and Cresselia, he wished that he'd been able to join them. Carefully he got onto the desk underneath the window and looked out at the sky, he had never envisioned that he'd ever come to a place like this after being dropped into that odd place filled with pokemon he'd never seen before. He felt horrible that he'd caused an incident during training just because his tail still felt too light sometimes. While it wasn't as bad as it had once been, he still hated that he couldn't seem to keep himself steady because of his stupid tail.

This was why his pride had abandoned him, Pippin felt his heartache at the memory of watching them walk away from him without looking back even as he cried out for them. He knew that Vali would never abandon any of them no matter what, but how long would she want to deal with him being so damn clumsy even with the help that the nice dame had given him? He looked at his injured leg and wondered if maybe Empress had been right to hur-

A hand began running through Pippin's black fur cutting off that thought. He looked at Vali in shock not having heard her move. She offered him a gentle smile that always managed to make him feel better no matter what. He looked away feeling a bit embarrassed about Vali finding him in such a mood. She spoke softly, "You're berating yourself for being so clumsy, aren't you?" Pippin's ears dropped and he nodded not wanting to look at his disappointed trainer, "Pippin, it isn't your fault for being so clumsy and even if it was, we can deal with it. You remember what Surge said, right? You won't have any more trouble once you're a Luxray," Pippin nodded with a small frown not wanting to wait until he evolved to stop being so clumsy, "That means we'll have to work hard in order to get you to evolve," Pippin found Vali tugging his head to look at her, "Pippin, I love you dearly, but sulking over having to wait until you evolve into a Luxray isn't going to do anything other than make you miserable. If you really want to stop being so clumsy, we'll start working on it more as well as up your training. Okay?" Pippin nodded as determination and warmth forced away his darker emotions, "Good," Vali let out a yawn, "We'll start once your leg heals up, so let's get some sleep."

Following Vali, Pippin got onto the bed and settled into his usual spot. He felt a nose press into his side and looked to see Balto peering at him. The Arcanine gave him a measured look filled with questions. He let out a low growl informing the large fire-type that everything was fine. Balto nodded and licked him lightly before settling in for sleep. He followed the alpha of their odd pride into slumber more determined than ever to conquer his clumsiness.

* * *

Vali walked over to the front desk of the Pokemon Center where a Nurse Joy was standing. The Nurse Joy offered her a beaming grin, "Good morning, Miss Potter-Black. How may I help you this morning?"

"I wanted to check on my Houndour egg," Vali said as Elrond set the egg case onto the front desk.

"No problem," Nurse Joy took her egg case, "If you would follow me,"

Vali and Elrond followed Nurse Joy into the back rooms of the Pokemon Center. The pink haired nurse led her into the 'nursery room' where everything needed for pokemon egg and infant pokemon care could be found in every single Pokemon Center. Nurse Joy set up the scanner used to check on the various pokemon eggs that came through the doors before after setting Vali's egg case onto the exam table. Once the scanner was ready, Nurse Joy took out the Houndour egg and gently placed it into the scanner before starting the scanning process.

Vali spoke as she sat down in one of the available chairs, "Nurse Joy, are you familiar with the Gym Leader, Blaine?"

"Not as much as the other Joy's here since I've only been at this pokemon center for a year now," Nurse Joy answered as they waited for the scan to finish, "But I'm familiar enough. He gave you his riddles, didn't he?"

"Yes," Vali nodded as Elrond settled down beside her on the other chair, "Does he change them for every challenger or does he have a rotation for the riddles?"

"I believe it's a rotation unless the challenger did something to anger him," Nurse Joy answered as she began checking over an egg that was currently settled in one of the large incubation chambers inside the room.

Vali didn't think she'd done anything to anger Blaine, but there was no telling if he'd try to use his riddles to test her in some way. She hoped not, "I'm not too good at riddles though my traveling companion isn't bad at them apparently. Do you have any advice?"

"Not going to ask for answers?" Nurse Joy asked while throwing an amused look at Vali.

Vali snorted at the thought, "Blaine would have told you not to give us the answers."

"You'd be correct, but he didn't say anything about not giving anyone advice," Nurse Joy let out a soft laugh, "My advice is to go for the simplest answer. In some cases, the riddle's answer will be literal,"

Vali nodded while wondering if maybe Elrond, Metagross, and Claydol would be of some help with this. Elrond sent a wave of acknowledgement and she formed a plan in her mind, "Thank you, Nurse Joy."

The scanner chimed and Nurse Joy checked over the results, "No problem, Vali. Now the egg is developing wonderfully, I can tell based on the growth you have another month to two before it hatches. I would suggest having your Arcanine, Charizard, or Numel sit with it for an hour every day from now on. I would also suggest buying some mineral water and rub it into the shell with a soft cloth. I'll show you how to do it, if you'd like," Vali nodded as she stood up from her chair and Nurse Joy got out the supplies, "Due to somewhat porous nature of the egg shell, the mineral water will soak into the shell allowing the fetus to benefit from the minerals. You can't use too much at a time though since this is a Houndour egg rather than a water-type one. It's best to dampen the cloth like this," Nurse Joy showed her how much water to use, "Then rub it along the shell. After this is done, you should either dry it off with a cloth or have your Arcanine curl up around it."

Once Nurse Joy finished, she dried off the egg and returned it to the egg case. Elrond took the egg case from her and they returned to the front of the pokemon center. Vali smiled at Nurse Joy, "Thank you so much, Nurse Joy."

"It's no problem, Vali," Nurse Joy beamed at her, "I love helping pokemon and dedicated trainers like you,"

* * *

During one of the breaks they took from figuring out the riddles as well as training, Vali and Steven explored Cinnabar a bit more thoroughly than they had before. Despite only being able to use one arm, she was able to take good pictures with the help of Elrond who was mostly doing it to improve his finer control over his psychic abilities. One of the fun things about Cinnabar was the board walk which was full of fun activities for both people and pokemon to participate in. While riding any of the rides was out of questions save for the Ferris Wheel because of her arm, she still had a lot of fun visiting the board walk and discovered the funnel cake tasted really good.

They also traveled around the Volcano of Cinnabar mostly for Vali to get a look at the Magmar and other fire-types that saw this place as their home. She spent most of the trip dictating to Steven various observations and the like while taking photos with the help of Elrond. None of the Magmar paid them any mind, they were more interested in fighting each other than dealing with any humans. She was pleasantly surprised to find a few Magby running around, but made no move to catch one since their mother's were nearby. Some of the Magby wandered close to the humans wanting to investigate the odd beings under the watchful eyes of their mothers, she made sure none of her pokemon threatened them and ended up returning Empress to her pokeball when the Bagon attempted to attack one of the Magby that got too close. She made a mental note to speak to Empress later on about attacking curious wild pokemon without being provoked. Other than a near-miss thanks to Empress, they were able to end the day unscathed with quite a bit of notes for her to look over and add to before sending them to Professor Oak.

Vali found Cinnabar calming despite it's lack of forests and the large amount of tourists running around. With each breath she took, the stress that had gone unnoticed seemed to dissipate and a sense of peace seemed to fall over her. It was somewhat alarming, but the fire-type master-in-training couldn't really bring herself to care too much. When she decided to meditate during one of her trips into the foothills of the volcano, she dropped her shields feeling as if the reason was just beyond them.

* * *

Vali assured Elrond that everything would be just fine before settling into her meditation. She slipped within her mind easily and slowly began to take down her shields. It was as her last shield fell that everything snapped into perfect clarity and she understood what was going on. Cinnabar island's very heart was connected to the living fire within the planets core. She could feel her inner flame pulse with the heart beat of the planet. A connection formed and suddenly she could sense where every fire-type on the island was. Touching the connections gave her a view of their life, she could see into their very hearts.

 _A small Magby evolving into a powerful Magmar who despised that that would take away his kin..._

 _A Vulpix that dreamed of becoming a beautiful Ninetails like her mother...  
_

 _An Arcanine looking proudly at his mate and their newborn pups..._

It took more mental strength and will than Vali was willing to admit for her to withdraw from the connection. She built up her shields feeling just a bit cold and felt Elrond's mental presence the moment she began to feel the temptation to drop them again. When she had them up at full strength, she opened her eyes and jolted backwards at the sight of diffrent fire-types surrounding her. All of her pokemon were keeping them back, they were tossing looks of concern towards her. Elrond helped her up as she asked, "What are they all doing here?"

 _"They felt your call,"_ Elrond answered her.

Vali shook her head in confusion, "What call? I didn't call anyone. I just..."

Elrond looked into her memories before shaking his head, " _Not intentionally, but you did call them."_

Vali wondered how that happened, but supposed it had been the connection that she'd felt form earlier. She looked at the gather fire-types and told them with a sheepish smile, "I apologize for calling you all. I honestly didn't mean to. I was only trying to figure out why I felt so at peace here on the island. Please forgive me and return to your homes."

It took a few minutes before all save for a single Magmar left. The Magmar grunted and pointed at Vali. Elrond translated as the fire-type master-in-training looked at the fire-type in confusion, " _She says that you owe her a fight for wasting valuable time."_

"You want to battle me?" Vali asked earning a nod from the Magmar, "Which one of my pokemon would you like to fight?" Magmar shook her head and pointed at Vali earning a wide-eyed look, "Magmar, I can't fight you. I'm not a pokemon and don't have any real fighting experience. Not to mention, my arm is kind of busted right now,"

Magmar narrowed her eyes before letting out a grumble and snort. Elrond translated as her pokemon closed ranks around her, _"Only a foolish young one wouldn't wait until after their training before sending out a call."_

"What training?" Vali asked with a frown as Balto settled beside her.

Elrond translated as Magmar rolled her eyes, " _The lord of Flames training thing. Granted, I am not translating what she said exactly because she's been quite rude, but that sums it up."_

"Magmar, I'm not suppose to train with the Lord of Flames for another year or two," Vali explained while wondering what exactly Magmar had said.

Magmar eyed her before grunting and walking away. Elrond translated that the fire-type disappeared into the foothills, " _She will be waiting for when you finish your training."_

"Dear Arceus, what exactly is this training going to entail if she's expecting us to fight?" Vali reached up to rub at her forehead, "Let's just get back to the Pokemon Center, Steven is probably wondering where we are. How long was I out?"

" _Four hours or close to it,"_ Elrond offered up as he helped pack her things up.

"This is going to be interesting to explain," Vali had only meant to stay out there for two hours max.

Vali would need to call Professor Oak about this little bit of information though she had wonder how the Magmar knew about that stuff or why she called her a young one. She doubted that she'd get the answer to the former anytime soon, but the later confused her quite a bit. As far as she knew, Magmar had one of the shortest life-spans out of fire-types and that was mostly due to their battle hungry attitudes. The oldest documented Magmar was one of Blaine's and it was only alive because of being a trainers pokemon. Very few Magmar even among trainer pokemon lived longer than ten years, they lived longer if they'd been able to evolve into a Magmortar. Did that mean the Magmar had been a trainers pokemon or one of the few that had managed to live a long time?

* * *

Professor Oak frowned as Vali finished her explanation about what happened, "That was very reckless of you, Vali."

Vali winced at that, but admitted it had been reckless of her especially given what had happened afterwards. If Magmar had insisted on fighting Vali and actually attacked, it could have ended badly for all those involved. What if someone had followed those pokemon? They could have found out the secret and might've spread it around. She couldn't not only endangered herself, but Sirius as well which wasn't something either of them needed. It was luck that none of that had happened and she knew it. She bowed her head, "I know, Professor. I wasn't really thinking about the consequences, but I had to find out what was going on. At least now, I know what's going on and won't do the same thing again if I come across a similar place," Professor Oak said nothing for a few moments and Vali raised her head to find him giving her an unreadable look, "Professor?"

Professor Oak shook his head as if forcing away some odd thought, "It's nothing, Vali. So long as you're careful, I suppose there is nothing else I can say on this matter."

Vali frowned at the Professor wondering what had just happened, "Are you okay, Professor?"

"I'm fine," Professor Oak smiled suddenly, "So you really saw into the lives of those pokemon?"

Vali was a bit thrown by the rather sudden change in mood and made a mental note to see if Delia could check on Professor Oak. She nodded lightly, "Yes, it was really weird. I felt like I was watching a movie or something tinted with these red flames. Seeing their lives, it was amazing if a bit scary in some places. I almost couldn't pull myself away."

Vali spent the next few moments telling Professor Oak about the lives that she'd seen. When she finished, Professor Oak looked really excited, "Vali, this might just give us more insight to just how pokemon think and adapt to the world around them. If only you could observe the bonds between people and pokemon, we might actually be able to figure out just how we're all connected."

"I don't think I'd be able to do that, Professor," Vali shook her head lightly, "Maybe if there were an aura user around, you could have them help you,"

Professor Oak looked a bit sad, "If only," He turned a bit serious, "Vali, that Magmar said she wanted to fight you, correct?"

"That's what Elrond translated and the Magmar nodded when I asked," Vali frowned feeling a little uneasy.

"That is troubling news," Professor Oak frowned at her, "On the one hand, it gives us some information about what exactly the Lord of Flames intends to teach you. On the other, it tells us that what awaits for you is not going to be peaceful,"

Vali swallowed at that, "But there isn't anyway to actually find out until he calls for me."

"Unfortunately," Professor Oak leaned back in his seat and cupped his jaw, "This just brings up more questions than we can answer,"

"That just seems to be the way things are going," Vali grimaced not liking the fact that every new piece of information just created more questions that they couldn't answer.

"I will keep trying to find something out about the carving," Professor Oak promised, "For now, you should focus on getting ready for your battle against Blaine,"

"We're still trying to figure out the last three riddles," Vali told him as it had been over a week and a half since getting the list from Blaine, "But they don't make much sense to me,"

"You'll figure it out eventually," Professor Oak chuckled softly.

With that, they said their goodbyes and Vali laid back on her bed with a groan. She looked at Vulpix when he nosed her with a whine, "Vulpix? Have I ever mentioned how much I hate riddles?" Vulpix looked at her in confusion and she smiled while setting her pokenav on the bed before reaching out to rub between his ears, "How about we go have some fun?"

Vulpix wagged his tail and barked at her. Vali decided to put everything behind her and just enjoy herself. After all, the questions would eventually get answered. She just needed to be patient.

* * *

The doctor looked over Vali's newest set of X-rays and smiled, "Well, Miss Potter-Black. It looks like your arm is finished healing."

"Really?" Vali looked at her arm in surprise, "I thought it would take another week,"

The doctor shook his head, "With the modification of potions and the benefit of moo-moo milk, it doesn't take quite as long for certain injuries to heal. Granted, you should avoid injuring your arm or using it overly much for another week just to be on the safe side."

"And drink plenty of moo-moo milk?" Vali took off her sling and tested how well her arm could move, "Thanks, Doctor Clark,"

"It's no trouble, Miss Potter-Black," Doctor Clark replied.

Soon enough, Vali was meeting up with Steven outside of the clinic she'd gone to and they went for lunch to celebrate the fact her arm was healed. Steven smiled as they walked down the street to one of the family restaurants that dotted this part of the city, "It looks like I won't have to write for you anymore."

"And thank Arceus for that," Vali offered him a playful grin, "Reading your chicken-scratch gives me a headache,"

Steven mock-scowled at her, "At least I won't have to rewrite whole pages just because you aren't satisfied with the way I wrote it."

The two of them started laughing and Vali said, "But seriously, thank you for helping me so much while my arm was banged up, Steven."

"It's no problem, Vali," Steven grinned lightly, "It was really interesting to see just how much information you're able to get just from watching a pokemon go about it's day,"

"Professor Oak wants as many details I can get and I've always been somewhat detail oriented," Mostly because Vali didn't want to give Petunia any reason to make her redo things over and over again, "It's actually kind of hard to put everything I see into words though without making it too wordy. Then again with a man like Professor Oak, the more details you have the better,"

"I-" Steven was cut off by a shout from behind them.

"Hey!" Vali and Steven turned around to find Grace Waterflower rushing towards them.

"Grace?" Vali murmured as they stopped to let the gym leader catch up.

"Vali, Steven," Grace smiled at them once she'd caught her breath after catching up, "I thought it was you two, but had to be sure especially since I didn't see Balto or Smaug,"

"We're about to go get lunch, would you like to join us?" Steven offered earning a nod.

"That sounds wonderful," Grace smiled lightly.

* * *

After getting seated and ordering their food, Vali asked the red head, "So Grace, what are you doing in Cinnabar and where is Mister Walter?"

"Walter is back home with Misty and the others," Grace replied with a light smile, "Taking care of the gym and facing what challengers are coming our way at this point, it won't be long until the yearly rush starts up. I'm in Cinnabar to meet up with a representative of the Hoenn league,"

"I assume that means the Spheal in your gym wasn't working out?" Steven asked earning a sigh.

Grace nodded with a slight frown, "Unfortunately nothing we've tried to do has made Spheal happy or interact with anyone, we would've sent him back to his home before, but none of the Hoenn gym leaders were able to send anyone to come get him."

"That isn't a surprise, the Hoenn League ended last month," Steven commented as their food was delivered and they were able to eat, "With how busy things were especially with the Conference, they were probably too swamped with trainers or getting things ready for the Conference,"

"Well, at the very least Spheal will be able to go home," Vali offered up not really knowing what else to say.

"Very true," Grace smiled a bit before focusing on Vali, "So what were you two doing by that clinic?"

"On our way over here, an unusually large pod of Gyarados attacked the ship we were traveling on," Vali explained as she picked up her glass of lemonade, "No one got seriously injured, but I ended up with a fractured arm. Thankfully, the fracture wasn't bad. I was at the clinic getting my arm checked out and it's fully healed,"

"You were lucky it wasn't worse," Steven commented with a shake of his head.

Vali nodded with a grin, "I was bruised all over. I'm surprised Empress didn't manage to break my ribs."

"Empress?" Grace asked with a raised eyebrow.

Vali's grin widened, "My Bagon. I caught her, my Numel Pele, and my Luxio Pippin in the Safari zone while we were in Fuchsia city. Pippin was a Shinx at the time."

"Have you caught any water-types?" Grace asked with a raised-eyebrow.

Vali shook her head, "No, I haven't found any that really click with me though I'm not exactly looking."

With that said, Vali and Steven told Grace about what they'd gotten up to since their last meeting over the course of lunch. By the time they finished, Grace was looking between them in disbelief, "You two have certainly gotten into quite a few interesting situations since we last met. Definitely a lot more interesting than my own pokemon journey."

"It's been pretty unforgettable," Vali said as they walked out of the restaurant after paying for their lunch.

They hadn't mentioned anything about Vali's dreams, her inner flame, or anything along those lines. They still had quite a bit to say though even when omitting certain facts. Grace shook her head as they walked towards the pokemon center, "I do not doubt that. Walter and the kids won't believe just what you two have gotten up to since the last time we saw each other," She smiled warmly at the two traveling trainers, "That being said, I'm really happy to hear that you two are doing well despite what's been thrown at you."

"Well, we wouldn't be able to reach our goals if we aren't able to roll with everything," Vali nodded along to Steven's words.

Grace let out a laugh, "Good to hear it, you'll definitely go far with that attitude. So just Blaine and then Giovanni, right?"

"Yup," Vali grinned at the thought, "Battling Blaine is going to be a bit difficult given that we both use fire-types and none of my pokemon have anything really effective in this situation, I'm looking forward to it though. It's going to be awesome and we're going to win,"

"I have to know how you're going to battle Blaine, Steven," Grace looked at him curiously, "Seeing as you are a steel-type trainer,"

"It'll be difficult, but it isn't the first time we've face a fire-type gym leader," Steven radiated confidence, "My pokemon and I have things in place to work around our disadvantages just like any champion would,"

Grace grinned at that, "I'll have to make sure we watch the recordings of your battles."

* * *

After reaching the Pokemon Center, Grace gave Vali the number for the Cerulean Gym and also the Waterflower families' personal home-phone with the request to keep in contact. The Gym Leader headed off to meet the Hoenn League representative while the two traveling trainers when to go train with their pokemon. Once everyone was released, they all seemed to notice that Vali no longer wore a sling, "Guys, my arm is healed," Cries of happiness sounded from the gathered pokemon, "Granted, I do need to take it easy with this arm for the next week just to make sure everything fine, but the point is that I'm not one handed anymore. This means I'll be picking up the grooming sessions again," She laughed at the cries of joy from her pokemon though some were quieter than others, "Now Steven and I still haven't found the answers to our last riddle, but that doesn't mean we're not going to keep up with our training."

With that, Vali and Steven set their pokemon to work while they looked over the last riddle. She murmured, "A place where fire-man fear to tread and Magmar love to swim. Liquid fire burns brightly, water has no place here."

"Vali, any clue what this means?" Steven asked with a frown.

Vali was about to say no when she thought about the riddle. Specifically the part about Magmar and liquid fire. Magmar couldn't swim because their bodies would evaporate any water it came into contact with unless the amount of water overwhelmed their natural abilities. Liquid fire could mean Greek Fire or Napalm, she doubted that Blaine would have either of those things especially since Greek Fire didn't exist in this world. Closing her eyes, she muttered under her breath, "Magmar swimming and liquid fire. What can Magmar swim in?" A thought hit her and she opened her eyes to look at the volcano as realization hit her like Empress decided to headbutt her stomach again, "I got it! A place where fire-man fear to tread and Magmar love to swim. Liquid fire burns brightly, water has no place here."

"You know the answer?" Steven asked and Vali pointed at the volcano, "The volcano? What about it?"

"Where would fire-man fear to tread? A place where water is useless," Vali grinned at Steven, "Magmar can't swim in anything other than liquid fire which burns brightly. In a volcano, water is useless because the heat from the magma would evaporate it. The magma is basically liquid fire and Magmar are often found swimming in it because it helps heal their wounds," She jabbed her finger towards the volcano, "This means that Blaine's gym is inside the volcano,"

"Inside the volcano?" Steven muttered softly giving her a look.

Vali wondered what the problem was before she realized it. She looked at the volcano as her hand dropped and muttered, "Blaine's gym is inside the volcano."

Sweet mother Mew, what the actual fuck was Blaine thinking? All it would take was a single wrong move and the whole thing could explode. Vali had known that Blaine was a bit off, but that was every pretty much any master level trainer once they reached that age. To think he would actually have the balls to make his gym in a goddamn volcano, he must've taken one too many hit to the head when he was younger to actually think this was a good idea. How in the name of Arceus did he get this past the gym inspectors?

* * *

Finding where Blaine was actually pretty easy, the man owned a hotel which sat over top the entrance to his gym. All it took was showing the Nurse Joy manning the front desk of the Pokemon Center their completed list of riddles and she told them exactly where to go. Blaine grinned when they entered the hotel, "Finally figured out the riddles, huh?"

"Why in the name of Arceus would you build your gym in a volcano?" Vali asked as they approached the front desk, "I get wanting to emphasis fire-types especially Magmar, but seriously?"

"For that reason," Blaine's grin widened at the look of confusion tossed at him, "To ensure that the trainers would be forced to think and only those truly willing to get their badge would be able to find my gym, it's a lot better than having to face false challengers,"

Vali could understand that, but had to ask, "How did you get this past not only the League, but the Gym Inspectors? You might've been an elite, but that wouldn't be enough to slip this past them."

"There are protections in place and the battlefield isn't exactly inside the Volcano itself," Blaine moved to the computer, "Now you both have two options for your gym battles. You can fight a member of my real team and depending on your performance will get the badge. Or do a regular gym battle which would be a four on four,"

Steven immediately chose the latter while Vali actually had to think about it. The desire to see just where they stood against Blaine's actual team was difficult to ignore, but she forced it aside as she contemplated just how risky this would be. Were they ready to fight an elite level pokemon? No, but that didn't mean they couldn't try. Blaine wouldn't be aiming to kill any of them, but the injuries sustained from that kind of battle would be bad no matter how well they fought. She looked at Steven as he asked, "Vali, are you thinking about the first option?"

"I'm giving it some real thought," Vali admitted as she looked back at Blaine, "Blaine, what member of your real team would it be?"

"My Magmar," Blaine answered with a light smile.

Vali's eyes widened and the desire to take the first option increased quite a bit. Battling a legend like Blaine's Magmar wasn't something just anyone did, it was capable of sweeping entire teams of pokemon if the man deigned to pull the fire-type out. It took serious skill, cunning, and power to win against that beast of a pokemon. Given their current power levels and the fact that three of her team members still needed a lot of training before that would be possible, they would likely lose very badly. Clamping down on that desire as she thought about how well her pokemon would actually fare against it, she said, "I'll take the second option. As much as I really want to battle against your Magmar and see just where my team stands, we are not anywhere close to ready."

Blaine nodded and typed it into his computer, "Good choice. A fire-type master should never let themselves become reckless otherwise they will be burned," He looked at both of them, "When do you want to battle?"

"Next week on Friday," Vali answered after a moment of thought

"Next week on Thursday," Steven said as Blaine typed away on the computer.

Blaine nodded, "Alright, we're all set. Vali, you will be battling me at 1:30 PM next week on Friday. Steven, you will be battling me at 2:45 next week on Thursday."

* * *

"What the actual fuck is up with these riddles?" Vali heard one of the newly arrived trainers complain.

Not even two days after scheduling the battles saw Cinnabar invaded by trainers attempting to take down Blaine, Vali had heard many of them start cursing at the fact Blaine had given them all riddles. Blaine had requested that Steven and her keep the location of his gym a secret which the two had promised to do since it was part of the challenge. When they weren't training for the gym battle, she was spending much of her time going over video's of Blaine's past battles and surfing the online forums for any information she could find. She decided against transferring any of her pokemon mostly because the ones back at the lab weren't prepared for a gym battle. While they could adjust if need be, it would cause unneeded stress.

Vali debated on who to use other than Balto, Smaug, and Elrond. Pippin had already battled in a gym battle and he had already requested through Elrond to be left out of it. This left Empress and Pele, she was leaning more towards Pele both because of the type match ups and because the Numel was having an easier time listening to her. Empress wouldn't be very effective when it came to the gym battle and was still a bit too hotheaded for her to risk it. Eventually deciding on having Pele as her fourth, she took Empress and Pippin out to battle when possible mostly to ensure that neither were left out. Pippin was throwing himself into training in order to overcome his clumsiness. Empress was annoyed at not being allowed to participate in the gym battle, but a talk with Balto got her to behave. At the very least, Empress was happy about being able to battle as often as she wanted.

Shaking her head lightly, Vali joined Steven in the trainer lounge. Steven looked up from his pokenav when she took a seat beside him, "How was battling?"

"Not bad, Empress actually used Zen Headbutt during my last battle or something close to it," Vali answered as she took off her gloves and shoved them into her jacket pocket, "I'm going to get her using it as soon as possible since it's a good move to have. She still doesn't have Focus Energy down, but I'm sure she'll get it soon enough. We lost that last battle though, but the guy's Florges had a really wicked Moonblast and Empress' Ember is still not even close to becoming a Flamethrower. I'll have to work with her on it,"

"A Florges? Was the guy a tourist?" Steven asked with a raised eyebrow.

Vali nodded with a grin, "From Kalos, he had a pair of Pyroar, a Litleo, a Stufful, and a Bruxish. The last two are from Alola," She grinned, "Oh, the Litleo was so cute. I definitely want to get one at some point."

Steven chuckled softly, "Well, it sounds like you had some fun."

"Yup though that wasn't the best part," Vali's grin widened as she practically vibrated in her seat, "I was passing through the plaza and found about about a small double battle tournament being set up. One of the prizes is an all expenses paid ferry ride to any port in Kanto," Steven's eyes widened, "I checked with the people announcing it two tickets for the ferry ride and it's for one of those really fast ones that would take all of a day to get to Pallet town from here. The other prizes are a voucher for the local trainer supply store and some pokeballs from Johto,"

"When is the tournament?" Steven asked as his eyes narrowed.

"Two days after my gym battle with Blaine," Vali offered up more information, "I looked at the rules and traveling partners are placed together so long as it's not an odd number of people. Pokemon like Gyarados or Onix aren't allowed, no moves like Earthquake are either because of the nearby volcano and the fact this is an island," She took out the brochure she'd gotten from one of the people at the sign up booth, "Everything else is pretty basic. We'd have to pay a fee of 250 poke each, but that's easy. So," Steven took the brochure from her and began look through it, "Wanna battle together?"

Steven was quiet as he looked through the brochure and Vali patiently waited for his reply while looking through her pokedex to write down any training improvements she'd decided on. When he finished the brochure, Steven said, "Sure, it'll be fun."

"Great!" Vali saved her work and stood up, "We should go sign up now,"

Steven nodded as he stood up as well, "Let's go then."

* * *

Looking out at the battlefield, Vali had to admit that Blaine was a genius if a crazy one. The battlefield was built inside one of the side vents of the Cinnabar volcano. The battlefield itself was supported by heavy duty cables and chains that not even an Aggron could bite through. The same could be said for the metal beneath the battlefield of volcanic rocks and dirt. It was all treated with a special type of coating created and continually improved by League scientists to withstand the heat of a volcano. It was mostly used when containing powerful fire-types specifically of the Magby-line. A system was in place to allow clean air into the vent without hitting the magma bubbling far beneath the battlefield. A psychic barrier as well as quite a few nets were in place to keep pokemon from falling into the lava. If those failed, Blaine had some type of mechanism that created a false floor about five feet below the battlefield that would deploy when a pokemon other than Magma fell towards the magma.

Vali was already sweating from the sheer heat coming off the room and was somewhat jealous of Steven who was enjoying the air-conditioned stands. She felt a faint buzzing in the back of her mind, but managed to ignore it as the referee called out, "This is a Four on Four battle between Gym Leader Blaine of Cinnabar island and Challenger Valkyrie Potter-Black of Pallet town! Only the Challenger may make substitutions. Any none flying-type pokemon save for Magmar is out if they fall below the battlefield. Trainers release your pokemon!"

Blaine released a Ponyta and Vali replied by releasing Pele who looked around curiously. She noted the stub on its forehead, the larger flames above its hooves, and its increase in height which told her that the Ponyta was coming close to evolving. By the aggressive pawing at the ground, it was getting pretty close. With that in mind, she knew they needed to end this battle fairly quick prompting her to call out, "Pele, Focus Energy and Earth Power."

Pele radiated bright orange energy for a few moments as Blaine shouted, "Ponyta, Quick Attack into Double Kick!"

Ponyta blazed across the field quickly with it's Quick Attack and got into position to hit Pele with Earth Power. Pele sent Ponyta stumbling away as the earth beneath their feet shuddered violently and pulsed upwards slamming into the Ponyta. Pele used Flamethrower which earned a cry of pain. Vali realized that Blaine's Ponyta likely has Run Away for it's ability which worked out for her. She called out, "Pele keep Ponyta off balance with Magnitude and Earth Power."

Ponyta struggled to keep on it's feet as the ground shuddered violently before getting sent skidding back as a wave of earth slammed into it. The only reason Vali didn't fear the battlefield collapsing when using those two attacks was due to Steven's battle with Blaine the day before when Claydol had Earth Power. Pele kept up the offensive as Blaine's Ponyta grew furious with each continued successful attack. The fury caused it to ignore Blaine which only caused more injuries to occur and infuriate Ponyta even more. With a rage-filled screaming, Ponyta jumped up and launched a Fire-Blast at Pele. Pele skidded back as the powerful fire-type move slammed into her, but managed to keep up the attack. Due to Ponyta's awkward position and the fact it had kept getting moved towards the edges of the battlefield, the wave of earth that slammed into it managed to send Ponyta falling off the platform. Blaine returned it with a low chuckle, "Nicely done using my own rules against me. Let's see if you can keep it up," He sent out a Growlithe that immediately dropped into a attacking position without any sign of the species normally cheerful nature apparent, "Growlithe, start off with Agility into Take Down."

Growlithe howled before pretty much disappearing from view which showed just how much training Blaine had put the puppy pokemon through since there wasn't even a sign of the tell-tale aura of Agility. Pele used Magnitude again looking around with a slightly wary expression on her face. Growlithe slammed into Pele from behind and actually managed to force the Numel to slide forward. By the time Pele reacted to the attack, Growlithe was gone. Vali inwardly cursed knowing that Pele wouldn't be able to actually hit Growlithe unless something slowed it down. Given that Pele hadn't really reacted to it's appearance on the field, Blaine's Growlithe likely had Flash Fire for an ability which meant fire-type attacks were out of the question. After Growlithe had once again struck, Vali decided to take a gamble as she called out, "Pele, Earth Defense!"

Earth Defense was an perfected move that basically utilized Pele's innate ability to control the earth. Pele created thick walls of earth/rock that surrounded her save for a specific area which basically forced the attacking pokemon to use that area in order to attack. Pele would then only need to use Earth Power or a long range move to damage the attacking pokemon. Seeing as Pele didn't have many long range moves, Vali had her learn Toxic and had been spending time ensuring that the Numel could use the long-range version of it. While the toxins were a bit weaker in this case due to pretty much needing to projectile vomit, Pele was capable of using it. Blaine realized that she had pretty much concocted an almost perfect defense and kill box when his Growlithe was unable to break through the defensive walls leading to it venturing into the 'weak point'. Growlithe backed out of the tunnel spluttering and trying it's best to get the poison it'd been hit by of, "That's rather inventive, Vali."

"I have to be especially since Pele isn't ready to turn into a tank just yet," Vali replied as Pele continued to defend herself and piss of Growlithe while doing so, "We're still working to perfect this, but anything works, right?"

Blaine chuckled as his Growlithe was sent flying out of the tunnel by a wave of Earth Power. Growlithe barely managed to keep itself from falling over the edge and glared at the box, "True enough especially since using Dig would mean magnifying the damage done by your Magnitude. Very smart move indeed though not something she can keep up for long, huh?"

Vali shook her head, "No, it isn't."

It ended up being a match to see who could outlast who and Pele barely managed to win. Vali returned the Numel who fainted moments later as Blaine called out a Magcargo, "Let's see how you deal with this."

Vali weighed her options before sending out Smaug who eyed the odd pokemon carefully, "Smaug, Pele managed to win the first two battles, but fainted due to exhaustion. I'm not sure how exactly we're going to battle this one, so be careful. Any gases it releases need to be blown away. Use Dragon Pulse and Dragon Rage, I doubt any fire-type attacks would actually work against it. Wing Attack too if you need a break from using your Dragon-type attacks," Smaug nodded spitting out an Ember before taking to the air, "We can do this."

While she was a bit disappointed at not facing one of Blaine's Ninetales or Arcanine, Vali knew that they'd probably be faced with one at some point soon. She hadn't actually seen a Slugma or Magcargo in real life before mostly because they were some of the pokemon that Professor Oak kept strictly within their pokeballs unless using an area deep within the Ranch's paddock that was off-limits to everyone save for the senior aids. Looking the Magcargo over, she had to admit that it was a perfect pokemon for someone like Blaine who lived in an area with a volcano. Magcargo immediately started using Harden and Smog though Smaug blew the poisonous cloud out of the battlefield immediately. Smaug retaliated with Dragon Pulse which was the easier of the two dragon-type attacks he knew and the one that didn't actually take a lot of energy to use unless he was pumping a lot of power into the move.

Blaine whistled as Smaug pretty much sent off a barrage of Dragon Pulses, "That Charizard of yours is definitely something if he an use Dragon Pulse in such a way."

"We've trained hard with it," Vali grinned at the Gym Leader, "We train hard with all our attacks working to perfect them no matter what,"

"A good philosophy," Blaine nodded to her before calling out, "Magcargo, Sandstorm!"

As Magcargo did as its trainer bid, Vali pulled on her goggles and scarf while shouting, "Smaug, use Flamethrower on the sand when it's too much and start putting in more power!"

Smaug roared as he upped his attack sacrificing his barrage for something stronger that actually managed to send Magcargo skidding back with an explosion. Magcargo let out an angry cry and used Smack Down. Despite the poor visibility caused by the Sandstorm, Smaug managed to avoid the large rock sent at him before using Dragon Rage which slammed into Magcargo earning a cry of pain. When Smaug let up on the attack, Magcargo retaliated with Rock Thrower and increased the Sandstorm. Soon enough it became hard to see even with her goggles, Vali could barely make out Smaug's attacking form amid the sand safe for when he used Flamethrower to get a small break from the sandstorm buffeting him.

A loud snarling roar echoed through the air rather suddenly followed by the battlefield becoming engulfed in the tell-tale green flame-like attack of Dragon Rage. The psychic barriers shielding the her shuddered horribly and the ground beneath her feet rumbled a bit showing just how powerful the attack was. When the attack faded taking away the sandstorm with it, Magcargo was clearly unconscious and Vali was able to see just what had caused Smaug to become pissed enough to release an attack like that. Smaug's right wing was clearly broken and his left torn in a few places. A multitude of cuts covered his body dripping blood. Smaug glared at the unconscious Magcargo with slitted pupils. She choked back the sound that wanted to leave her at the sight of him. Swallowing heavily, she called out, "Smaug!" Smaug didn't look away from the fallen Magcargo and snarled at Blaine when the Gym Leader returned him, "Smaug!" The second call seemed to get through the rage and he turned to her, "Smaug, you're hurt and are probably in a lot of pain right now. I'm going to return you and get you to Nurse Joy at the first possible moment. Okay?" Smaug eyed her as his pupils slowly returned to normal and pain filled his eyes moments later, "Please."

Smaug nodded and Vali returned him whispering her promise to him. The ball in her hand pulsed warmly before going cold as suspended animation took hold. Placing Smaug's pokeball at it's place, she saw Blaine release an Ninetales though not the one that she'd seen the first time. She sent out Elrond who connected their minds upon his release. He winced as her mind went over how the battles had gone, " _I will make this as quick as possible though it is likely Balto will need to take over mostly due to the heat being a bit much for me."_

 _'_ Do what you can,' Vali replied as she called out, "Elrond, Electric Terrain and Double Team. Everything else is up to you, my friend."

Elrond nodded as he set up Electrical Terrain and created copies of himself before promptly releasing electrical hell on his opponent. Blaine's Ninetales jumped to its feet from the seated position it had taken and began dodging the attacks sent its way as best it could. Vali offered up suggestions as Elrond worked on wearing down Ninetails who was trying to barbecue him. Thanks to training with Smaug who tended to try the same with anyone save for her and Balto when annoyed, Elrond dodged the attacks sent his way quite well. Ninetales snarled as Elrond hit it with Thunder Wave followed by a Thunder Bolt which he boosted by renewing Electrical Terrain. Despite the electricity playing merry hell on it's nerves, Ninetales managed to hit Elrond with Payback causing the Alolan Raichu quite a bit of pain that almost knocked him out.

Elrond retaliated with a close Thunder Punch boosted by Agility that sent Ninetales skidding backwards. Vali knew that if Ninetales managed to hit Elrond with anymore dark-type or ghost-type attacks, he'd be out of the count. Despite what Elrond had said, she knew he could win this battle, but the question was how. Even though Ninetales had taken a lot of damage from the attacks that had hit it over the course of the battle, it only looked a little worse for wear. Thinking over the rules of the battle and the previous battles, a plan formed in her mind and she mentally called out, 'Elrond, pick it up with Psychic and force it over the edge. If we can just get it over the edge, we'll win the battle. It might try to use a dark or ghost-type move to disrupt your psychic which means you need to be ready to spam attacks at it again. I know this is rough on you given that you've already been hurt once this battle, but I know you can win this.'

Elrond read over the plan and nodded with a determined gleam in his eyes. Ninetales yelped and began fighting against the psychic hold as Elrond lifted it off the ground. Blaine realized what was going on the moment Ninetales began floating towards the edge of the battlefield and burst out laughing, "Not a bad plan, but that Alolan Raichu of yours still needs quite a bit of work when it comes to lifting things with Psychic. Ninetales, Payback!"

Ninetales did as it's trainer bid causing the psychic hold on it to falter and dropped to the ground. Before it could attack, Elrond unleashed a Thunder Wave and Electro Ball disrupting the attack as Ninetales dodged. The moment the dark-type move faded saw Elrond grabbing Ninetales again slowly, but surely pushing it towards the edge. Ninetales kept disrupting the psychic-hold, but Elrond pushed himself to ignore the slight pain the dark-type moves' energy caused him. Finally, Elrond launched one last Thunder Bolt at Ninetales when it was right near the edge and sent it flying off the platform. Blaine returned his Ninetales as the referee called out her victory while Elrond floated over to her. Vali hugged Elrond gently pressing a kiss to her forehead as he murmured, " _That was absolutely exhausting."_

'You did perfectly, Elrond,' Vali grinned at him, 'I'm definitely giving you extra berries and a thorough,'

Elrond smiled weakly at her, " _I look forward to it, but please return me as my mind definitely needs some rest after that. We will need to work on my psychic abilities that much more."_

'We will,' Vali promised as she took out Elrond's pokeball, "Enjoy your rest, my friend,"

Leaving the battlefield behind, Vali met Blaine in the lobby of his hotel and they shook hands as he presented her with the second to last badge she needed to enter the Conference, "Vali, I present you with the Volcano Badge. You definitely earned it."

"Thank you, Blaine," Vali took her badge, "I couldn't have done it without my friends though,"

Blaine grinned at her, "It was definitely one of the more interesting battles I've had in quite awhile. I look forward to seeing your performance at the Conference."

"We'll do our best," Vali promised him.

"Now off you two go, you'd best get your pokemon checked out especially if you want to participate in that doubles tournament," Blaine waved at them and moved to the front desk.

Vali grinned as they left the gym, "One more to go."

"And it'll probably be a bit difficult for you given that the last one deals with ground types," Steven commented as they walked.

"True enough, but we'll get through it like we do with everything else," Vali patted her pokeballs feeling them warm beneath her fingers briefly, "We'll get that done and focus on getting ready for the Conference," She looked at Steven curiously, "You're still planning on going through Mount Moon again, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Steven nodded with a slight smile on his lips, "I'm really interested in seeing if I might be able to find the Legendary Moonstone and maybe some more fossils to take back home with me,"

"You'll probably find a lot of strong pokemon deeper in the mountain," Vali thought back to that series of lectures Professor Oak had given on Mount Moon before Christmas last year, "But you'll have to be really careful of the Onix living there too, they're apparently huge though not to the point of Mount Hideaway. You might end up finding a Steelix there too. When we get to Pallet Town, you should talk to Professor Oak. He did a series of lectures about Mount Moon last year before Christmas and will probably be able to give you a good idea of what to expect,"

"I definitely will speak with him when we get to Pallet Town," Steven decided as they entered the town proper and headed for the Pokemon Center, "How long do you want to stay in Pallet Town?"

Vali thought it over before saying, "A week. It'll give everyone a chance to relax and get reacquainted with one another. Not to mention give Smaug some time to relax after getting his wings damaged."

Wincing at that, Vali pressed a hand to Smaug's pokeball mentally apologizing to him for letting something like that happen even if she couldn't actually control it. Smaug's ball warmed gently as if reassuring her that everything was alright.

* * *

Nurse Joy smiled as Vali as she placed her tray of pokeballs onto the front desk, "Everyone is going to be alright. Pele just needs a lot of rest and food to recover from her battle. Elrond needs the same though I would suggest having him avoid using his psychic-type energy for a day to help recover."

"Should I add honey and moo-moo milk to their food?" Vali asked as she took the pokeballs from the tray.

"Yes, I would also suggest giving Elrond some persim berries to help with any headaches," Nurse Joy said as Vali took out her pokedex to make a note of it, "Smaug will be just fine as well though he won't be flying for a week just to make sure the bones in his wing heal properly as well as the tears. I'm going to give you a prescription for some medication that he'll need to take which will help his bones heal and encourage them to become stronger," Nurse Joy handed her a piece of paper, "Once the week is up, you should take him to the nearest pokemon center or pokemon doctor. They'll give you further information on what to do. Do not let Smaug fly for any reason until they clear him,"

"He isn't going to be happy about this, but I understand, Nurse Joy," Vali took the prescription, "Thank you for this,"

"It's not a problem, Vali," Nurse Joy replied with a warm smile, "Have a nice day,"

Vali's pokenav rang as she left the Pokemon Center for the Pokemart that sat nearby. She answered it, "Hello?"

"Hey, Pup!" Sirius grinned at her.

"Hey, Siri," Vali greeted him with a light smile, "What's up?"

"Did you battle Blaine yet?" Sirius asked earning a nod, "How did you do?"

"We won," Vali told Sirius about the battle as she entered the Pokemart and went about grabbing everything she needed.

Sirius let out a bark of laughter, "That's the good ol' Marauder ingenuity mixed with your mother's brains, you did a good job, Pup."

"Thanks, Siri," Vali bent down to pick up a small case of honey after handing over the prescription, "I'm so proud of everyone especially Pele. She did amazing for her first Gym Battle. Didn't even falter for a moment when I was commanding her," She stood up with the case of honey in her basket and moved towards the coolers where the moo-moo milk could be found, "Elrond did really good too and I know he's gotten a bit more confidence in himself thanks to winning against Ninetales. I'm a bit worried about Smaug though since his wings got hurt, but Nurse Joy said they should be just fine. It was a bit weird though,"

"With that last Dragon Rage attack, right?" Sirius asked earning a nod as she pulled a medium sized bottle of moo-moo milk out of the cooler.

"Yeah, it was a lot more powerful than usual and wider spread," Vali still couldn't believe it, "I mean pokemon can do a lot of damage and become more powerful when they're angry. I know that, but I wasn't expecting something like that,"

Sirius shrugged, "Pokemon are amazing creatures capable of so many things especially when they're strong. Maybe Smaug somehow managed to access some hidden pool of extra energy or something, you should talk to Professor Oak about it when you get to Pallet Town."

"I'm planning on it," Vali picked out a small pack of the persim berries and went up to the counter, "So anything you wanted to talk about other than the whole gym battle?"

Vali paid for everything and left the Pokemart. Sirius let out a slightly sheepish chuckle, "Well, Pup about that..."

Vali eyed him as she walked back towards the Pokemon Center, "Please tell me you don't need me to help smooth things over with Delia because you pissed her off."

"What? No!" Sirius shook his head, "It's not like that at all. I haven't done anything to make her angry with me," She gave him a look which he replied with an offended one, "I did not make Delia angry at me. I'm calling to ask if you would be able to help me out with something,"

"If it's to help you prank someone, I'm gonna say no," Vali warned him.

Sirius gave her a mock disappointed look that faded into a serious expression, "Pup, I need you help picking out a gift for Delia. Normally I would have that covered, but since they're running us pretty hard lately, I haven't been able to get one for her."

"Oh yeah, her birthday is next week, isn't it?" Vali would need to get something for her as well.

"Yup. I'll be able to make it home for her birthday, but won't have time to pick up a gift," Sirius offered her a pleading look, "Please, Pup,"

"Of course though you'll have to give me some idea of what you want to get her," Vali replied with a light grin as she entered the Pokemon Center, "And keep in mind that I'm not made of money or have too much on me at the moment,"

* * *

Steven looked at the necklace Vali had bought and had to admire just how perfect the little stones looked, "Why on earth did you buy something like that?"

"Sirius wanted to get Delia a gift, but doesn't have the time to get one himself due to work," Vali explained as she took the paw print necklace back, "So he had me get something for him to give to her, I also got my own gift for her,"

"Why did you two need to get gifts for her?" Steven asked as Vali closed the necklace case and put it into her bag.

"Her birthday is is next week," Vali answered as she showed him a charm bracelet with a little flame charm, "This is what I got her,"

"I think she'll love it," Steven looked at her curiously, "I'm surprised you got her that necklace though since I doubt Sirius sent you money to buy it,"

Vali was a frugal person save for the instances where she wanted to spoil her pokemon which always led to a somewhat large bill, so her spending the cash to buy Delia a necklace like that was a bit odd. She gave him a grin as she put the charm bracelet into her bag likely planning to shift things later on, "We're on Cinnabar, Steven."

Steven frowned at her, "What does being on Cinnabar have anything to do with you buying that necklace?"

"Cinnabar might be famous for being the perfect place to vacation in the sea foam islands, but that isn't the only reason it's famous," Vali sat down on her bed and pulled Vulpix into her lap, "The volcano is another alongside the fire-type pokemon. The last reason's been forgotten by most due to rumors that the League spread a long time ago,"

"Rumors?" Steven went through what rumors he'd heard about Cinnabar and dug up an old memory that made him look at Vali in shock, "Are you telling me that Cinnabar's diamond mines are still open?"

"Yup," Vali grinned a bit, "Turns out Cinnabar and the League have a deal going on, the League keep people from finding out about the mines being active while Cinnabar gets some extra funding for various projects,"

"If that's true, how did you get that necklace without it costing more than you're usually willing to pay for something?" Steven asked with a raised eyebrow.

Vali's grin grew as she explained, "I went into the older part of town where the tourists don't really wander because it was so crowded and everything was overpriced. I ended up coming across this little jewelry store. Unlike the ones around this part of the island, it had fairly low priced jewelry and the owner was willing to haggle. Ended up finding out the story from the owner while picking out the charm bracelet."

Steven had to shake his head, "Only you would end up finding that out when looking for birthday presents, Vali."

* * *

"64 pairs signed up and they're having four sets of double battles at the same time for the first two rounds," Vali looked at the card she'd been given, "We're in B-block which means our first match is after the first set of battles happen. So who are you planning to use?"

"I figured that I'd go with Mawile since it's been awhile since we battled together," Steven answered as they sat down in the tent that served as the waiting area for everyone, "You?"

"Empress," Vali answered after a moment of thought, "If that's alright,"

Steven nodded as Vulpix released himself from his pokeball and settled on Vali's lap, "It's a good idea since it'll give her some experience and Mawile should be more than able to make up for any problems. Empress has been improving, right?"

"Quite a bit, I think the one on one battles and training have been really helping to settle her," Vali shook her head at Vulpix, "Vulpix, you're supposed to stay in your pokeball, but I suppose it'll be alright for now. You will have to go back inside when it's our turn to battle, alright?" Vulpix nodded as he looked at the people inside the tent curiously, "Once the first round is over, we'll be able to see which pokemon have been used so far and be able to plan things properly,"

"I'm still a little surprised that so many pairs signed up," Steven commented as he leaned back in his seat, "I mean this isn't as big a tournament as the last one,"

"A lot of tourists signed up," Vali murmured as they called for A-block competitors to take to the fields, "The first round or two are probably for weeding out the ones that aren't serious trainers," She smiled a bit as Vulpix nudged her hand to pet him, "At the very least, we'll probably see some interesting pokemon,"

* * *

Vali sent out Empress as Steven did the same with Mawile. The first opponents they'd be facing sent out a Spinarak and a Teddiursa. Grinning a bit as the referee called out for them to begin, she shouted, "Empress, Ember on that Spinarak!"

"Mawile use Iron Head on Teddiursa!" Steven called out with a light smile.

"Spinarak dodge it!" The boy across from Vali called out in alarm.

"Teddiursa Attract!" The girl across from Steven shouted.

Teddiursa blew a kiss as Spinarak quickly darted out of the way of Empress' Ember attack. Instead of causing Mawile or Empress to fall in love with the Teddiursa, it only pissed the pair off earning a shout of confusion from the girl. Empress kept up the attack on Spinarak and managed to score a decent hit with Ember. Mawile slammed into Teddiursa and knocked it out without much trouble earning a frown from Steven. Mawile blocked Spinarak from escaping allowing Empress to use Fire Fang which knocked the poor bug out.

After shaking hands with their opponents, they headed back to the waiting area with Steven saying, "That was disappointing."

"Now you see why Blaine and Surge hate tourists," Vali commented with a soft snort.

* * *

A thirty minute waiting period came with a list of opponents for everyone. Vali looked over their opponents for this round, "Looks like a Bellsprout and Machop this time."

"Are you going to use Empress again?" Steven asked while peering down at the list.

"She'll want to battle again," Vali replied with a shake of her head, "That last round disappointed her,"

"I'll keep with Mawile for the same reason," Steven smiled slightly, "They're not a bad team," Vali grinned as she nodded in agreement, "I hope this ones going to be more interesting,"

* * *

The Bellsprout the trainer across from Vali released was definitely closing in on evolution based on the size of it's yellow bulb-like head. The Machop didn't show any signs of evolution, but it wasn't very surprising since the pokemon was obviously a more recent catch based on it's slightly nervous twitching as it's eyes flickered towards the crowd flinching at the loud noises. She wondered where it's trainer had caught it since members of the Machop line didn't live on Cinnabar. Narrowing her eyes at the boy that had released it, she wondered what the hell he was thinking using that Machop when it clearly wasn't used to trainer battles especially in highly crowded areas.

Vali called out, "Empress, Ember and Fire Fang on that Bellsprout. Be wary of it's vines."

Empress growled as she leaned forward a bit glaring at the plant-like pokemon. Steven called out, "Iron Head on the Machop, Mawile."

Mawile nodded as the trainer across from Vali shouted, "Razor Leaf, Bellsprout. Keep both those pokemon on their toes."

"Machop, get in close and bash that Mawile's head in with Karate Chop," The boy with the Machop shouted.

Vali frowned as Machop hesitated as Bellsprout released a wave of razor sharp leaves. Empress burned those that approached her while Mawile used Fairy Wind to knock them off course. She spoke as Empress rushed through the leaves to attack Bellsprout directly, "Those two didn't come up with a good strategy, they don't seem to know how to fight together."

"We're technically not fighting together either," Steven pointed out as Empress latched onto one of Bellsprout's vines and bit down with Fire Fang earning a loud shriek of pain, "But I know what you mean. They don't seem to be compensating for each other's weaknesses,"

Mawile slammed her false head into Machop sending it flying backwards with a loud yelp as Empress detached from Bellsprout's vine and used Headbutt to send it skidding back. The Bellsprout didn't even look fazed by the attack as it dug into the ground meaning it knew Ingrain. Vali called out, "Empress, Bellsprout won't be fazed by physical attacks like Headbutt. Keep up the fire-type attacks!"

Empress growled and began spitting Ember attacks at Bellsprout who couldn't really dodge thanks to it using Ingrain. Mawile kept up her attack on Machop this time grabbing it with Crunch earning a squealing cry of pain as Machop beat it's fists against the inside of Mawile's false mouth trying to get out. Machop managed to get out only to be hit with a Sucker Punch and sent flying towards Bellsprout. Empress' Ember attack, which looked more and more like a Flamethrower, finally upgraded itself into a proper Flamethrower that struck once the two pokemon had collided with each other. When Empress stopped, Machop was unconscious, but Bellsprout was still conscious. Bellsprout was enveloped in the light of evolution seconds later earning loud cheers and shouts of congratulations from the crowd. Rather than continue the battle after the Bellsprout finished evolving, the trainer called out, "I forfeit! Bel-Weepinbell needs to see Nurse Joy and I'd rather not let her get hurt anymore."

After the Referee called the match and they shook hands with their opponent with the Machop's trainer stomping off, Vali told the boy, "Nicely done with your Weepinbell, you did a good thing for her."

"Thanks," The boy smiled weakly, "That Bagon of yours is really cool too. It managed to get Flamethrower in the middle of a battle,"

"We've been working hard on that and she's a determined little thing," Vali let go of his hand, "I'd suggest feeding your Weepinbell some Rawst berries even after Nurse Joy's finished with her. They'll help speed up her recovery,"

The boy looked a bit surprised, "Really?" Vali nodded with a light smile, "Thanks for the tip, I might just do that."

They separated from the kid and headed back to the waiting area. Steven looked at her as she smiled lightly, "That was nice of you, Vali."

"Despite how quick the battle was, the kid actually wasn't too bad and clearly cares about his pokemon," Vali scowled a bit as she thought of the other trainer who stomped off the moment they shook hands, "That other trainer shouldn't have sent that Machop out. It's obviously fairly recently caught and not used to humans,"

* * *

Vali looked over their opponents pokemon and smiled a bit, "Steven, I think I'll use Pippin this time around."

Steven chuckled softly, "I'll use Blastoise. He's been wanting to have some fun. Just try to keep the electricity away," Vali grinned at him, "Though why not use Elrond?"

"He's still resting from his battle with Blaine," Vali answered as she palmed Pippin's pokeball feeling it heat up in her hand, "Besides Pippin's been working so hard, he deserves a chance to shine,"

* * *

Vali looked over their opponent's with a small grin. The pair of female trainers had released a Vaporeon and a Torracat. She had to keep from cooing at the Torracat because it was so cute. Steven glanced at her with an amused chuckle as she shouted towards the girl that owned the Torracat, "Your Torracat is really cute!"

"Your Luxio is too," The girl replied with a cheerful grin, "But that doesn't mean you'll win! Torracat, use Flame Charge!"

"Vaporeon, Water Gun!" The girl's partner shouted.

"Pippin, Thunder Wave and Baby-Doll Eyes!" Vali ordered with a bright grin.

Steven shook his head with an amused chuckle and called out, "Protect to avoid the Thunder Wave then Water Gun at that Torracat."

Pippin waited until Blastoise had his protect up to let it rip hitting both the Torracat and Vaporeon in one go. Vaporeon's Water Gun spluttered to a stop as it's body began to shudder due to the electricity going through it while Torracat stumbled as the Thunder Wave passed it. Blastoise hit it with dual Water Guns causing the fire covering the Torracat's body to go out as it was sent skidding. Pippin used Baby-Doll Eyes on Vaporeon then began to use Charge as Blastoise used Rapid Spin to launch into Torracat and send it flying towards the wall. Torracat got off a Flamethrower that burned towards Pippin who cried out as the edges of the fire hit him. Pippin launched a Spark towards Vaporeon in retaliation who dodged the electric-type attack.

Vali called out, "Pippin, get in close and use Icy Bite!"

Channeling both Ice Fang and Bite was difficult, it was easier than Pippin using multiple electrical attacks at the same time though. Vaporeon lashed out with Water Gun again, but Pippin lept over the attack managing to keep on his feet when he landed. He latched onto Vaporeon's shoulder with his combined attacks earning a high pitch squeal of pain. Torracat dodged around Blastoise's attacks and slammed into Pippin with Double Kick making the Luxio detach with a surprised cry of pain. Pippin pulled himself up as Torracat checked over his battling partner. Blastoise called out to Pippin who shook himself and growled as he looked over their opponents. Blastoise launched a Hydro Pump towards the two sending both Torracat and Vaporeon sprawling though the water-type eeveelution quickly rose to it's feet looking a bit better. Vali was about to ask what the hell Blastoise had been thinking when Pippin launched a Thunder attack towards the two shocking the shit out of the water drenched pokemon.

Steven spoke as Vaporeon struggled to it's feet with Torracat following at a slower pace, "That was a good combination attack, it wore Pip out though."

Vali nodded looking over at Pippin who looked ready to pass out from channeling that much electricity, "We'll need to end this quickly. I think Rapid Spin would take them out and Pippin could use Icy Fang on whoever's still up afterward."

"Sounds like a plan," Steven quickly gave the order with Pippin looking at Vali in confusion and existence before relaxing when she nodded at him.

Blastoise slammed into Vaporeon and Torracat with Rapid Spin which was enough to knock both their opponents out. Vali hugged Pippin as he stumbled over and whispered, "Good job, Pip. You didn't even trip once."

Pippin purred as he licked her cheek clearly pleased with himself. Vali returned him and shook hands with their opponents. The owner of the Torracat commented, "That Luxio of yours is pretty good."

"Same with your Torracat," Vali grinned at her.

The girl grinned back at her, "I hope we can battle again at some point. It was real fun. My name is Aleka Morr of Akala island in Alola,"

"Valkyrie Potter-Black of Pallet Town though I prefer Vali," Vali replied as she released the other's hand.

They separated soon after with Steven asking, "What's with that grin?"

"I'm definitely getting a Litten at some point even if it kills me," Vali answered pumped about the Alolan fire-type starter, "I want one as badly as I do a Cyndaquil and an Amaura,"

There was no better feeling than actually meeting a new fire-type or battling against it, Vali really wanted a Litten now. Steven chuckled as he looked at her in amusement and she ignored him while thinking of ways to get a Litten at some point.

* * *

Vali released Balto while Steven released Metagross. Across from them, the two trainers they were battling released an Absol and a Persian. Both trainers had given a good showing, the battle was going to be good. Balto knew without her saying anything that the Absol needed to be kept away from Metagross. He glanced back at her as she ordered, "Sunny Day then blast them. I don't want to use Heat Wave unless we have to."

Steven was likely relaying his own orders telepathically to Metagross. Balto nodded as a warm glow emanated from his body and he raised his head to howl releasing a large burst of sunlight that immediately turned up the heat around them. Balto released a powerful Flamethrower towards both their opponents with Metagross guiding the flames as they'd practiced since signing up for the tournament. Absol and Persian lept out of the way doing their best to avoid the onslaught of flames being directed at them by the pseudo-legendary steel/psychic-type. Absol launched a powerful Dark Pulse towards Metagross hoping to disrupt it's abilities only for Metagross to send a Shadow Ball towards the attack causing a minor explosion. When Balto stopped his Flamethrower, he used Flame Wheel and rushed towards Absol allowing Metagross to focus on Persian who was aiming to use Night Slash on the shiny pokemon.

Metagross allowed Persian to get somewhat close before hitting it with a Meteor Mash to the chest sending the feline flying back. Balto clipped the Persian as he came out of Flame Wheel making the feline pokemon yowl in pain. Balto used Double Team and began to race around the field confusing everyone save for Metagross who'd probably formed a temporary psychic link with Balto. Balto herded both pokemon into the direct path of Metagross who was using Gyro Ball sending both their opponents flying. Absol managed to get off a Shadow Claw causing Metagross to groan in pain. Balto used Flare Blitz as their opponents began attempting to get up from where they'd landed. Balto flinched and shuddered as recoil hit him. Absol's trainer suddenly called out, "Perish Song, Absol!"

Absol began to let out a rhythmic wailing sound that caused Vali's ears ring and her body to tremble. All three pokemon on the field froze and let out sounds of confused pain. Steven cursed as Absol fell silent, "We need to finish this quickly."

"Agreed," Vali called out, "Balto, take out Absol now!"

Balto nodded and rushed towards the disaster pokemon. He used Reversal the moment he reached the dark-type which knocked Absol out. Metagross finished off Persian with Flash Cannon. Not long after the referee called the match saw both Metagross and Balto collapsing as Perish Song took effect, the trainer of the Persian was shouting at the trainer of the Absol unhappy about the use of Perish Song. The trainer of the Absol burst out, "Shut the hell up! Do you seriously not realize who the hell that is? That is Steven Stone, he was in the top three of the Hoenn League last year. At least my thing eventually worked, your Persian barely did anything. Actually train the damn thing rather than let it be useless!"

Vali shared a look with Steven before calling over the Referee, "Anyway we can skip the handshake? Those two seem like they've got issues to work out."

The Referee nodded, "Go on. You two should get your pokemon looked at, the prize ceremony is in an hour."

"Thanks," Vali said earning a weak grin from the Referee.

Steven spoke as they walked away, "That was..."

"Not a bad battle," Vali offered up earning a nod, "We dominated which isn't surprising considering how often we train together,"

"Yeah," Steven coughed lightly, "And that bit after..."

"I'm just going to ignore that," Vali shook her head, "That was a mess and not something I really want to think about much less get involved in,"

"Sounds good," Steven smiled as they headed to the Pokemon Center, "Looks like we'll be back in Pallet Town in time for Delia's birthday,"

"A week of relaxing and just enjoying the fact we're so close to our goal sounds awesome," Vali grinned brightly, "I can't wait to spend some time with everyone. I've missed them a lot,"

* * *

The prize ceremony went passed quickly, but Vali was introduced to the not quite so fun part of winning a televised event, Reporters. Thankfully not as many as the Indigo Conference would have, Steven took a majority of the questions though one reporter asked Vali, "Miss Potter-Black, you're from Pallet Town, correct?"

"Yes, I am," Vali nodded with a light smile on her face and her fingers burrowed in Balto's fur thankful.

"You just started your trainer Career this year, didn't you?" The reporter asked earning a nod.

"Yes, Ma'am. I started a day after my birthday," Vali answered as Balto leaned into her touch slightly.

Another reporter called out, "Miss Potter-Black, what's your goal? Are you trying for the championship?!"

"Not in the least, I know someone who's trying for it and, well, better him than me," Vali shrugged lightly, "I'm trying to become a member of the Elite Four and a fire-type master,"

"If that's true, why do you only have a single fire-type?" Someone else called out.

"I don't only have one fire-type," Vali corrected them, "I only used Balto in the match because the other two with me were exhausted after our gym battle with Blaine,"

Steven spoke over the crowd, "We'll both only take one more question. It's been a long day," Steven picked a reporter, "You?"

"Devon Drake of Cinnabar Times, what's the next step for you, Mister Stone?" The reporter stepped through the crowd.

"At the current moment, I'm planning to eat something and spend time with my pokemon," Steven answered with a light grin.

The reporter frowned at him while Vali picked out the next one, "Yes?"

"Thalia Allen of Goldenrod Daily," The reporter stepped up with a warm smile on her face, "Your last battle today showed off a rather close bond between Mister Stone and you. How do you know one another?"

"We've been traveling together since the day after I received my starter pokemon. You see, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do as a pokemon trainer," Vali explained with a sheepish expression, "I definitely wanted to gather together a team of pokemon that would be like family to me and to explore the world. Other than that, I didn't really have a goal in mind. Steven was kind enough to become my traveling partner and helped me figure out what I wanted to do," She smiled lightly, "And we've become really good friends since then,"

With that last question answered, Steven got them out of their and back to the Pokemon Center. He looked at Vali with a light smile, "Not bad, you didn't stutter or mess up at all when speaking to the press."

"It helps that Balto was with me," Vali hugged the Arcanine, "He really helped me settle and focus on acting like you were,"

"So shall we go eat something and start packing up?" Steven asked as Vali returned Balto before they entered the Pokemon Center.

"Sounds like a plan," Vali's stomach growled, "I'm really hungry,"


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997: Viridian City Gym Battle ahead. This chapter was a pain in the butt especially since my mind wasn't exactly in the right place a lot and I ended up getting sick for a week which isn't fun at all, I managed it though and here's the next chapter. I hope you all enjoy it**

 **Reviews:**

 **AyameKitsune : Hope you enjoy this one as well.**

 **Selphina : Sometime in the future, I have yet to decide how.**

 **Twister60 : Glad you think so.**

 **Zeru'Xil: Thank you!**

 **Blank-name26: I'm glad you like it so much. **

**damon blade : I have a plan, but it'll be a bit before that happens. **

**frankieu : Not really, she just doesn't really like riddles. The wedding is happening just yet.**

 **kfawcett1998 : She will though I'm working out how exactly to put it into the story. **

**havekzero : She doesn't really have a reason to use it especially since she doesn't often face snake-like pokemon. I'm sorry that you don't like how I'm having her specialize, but she wanted to be a fire-type master in my mind. Glad you're enjoying it regardless.**

 **ellainaparker : Thanks.**

 **greenespeon1995 : Expect the next one soon.**

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 **jiongu-naruto : Vali will not be catching any Legendaries, but will have plenty of interactions. You'll just have to see with the rest.**

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 **yachiru-chan92 : They're utterly evil beings. I'm glad you're enjoying it.**

 **mr. bumoity : Eventually perhaps, I haven't really made a decision just yet though perhaps take a look at the chapter where Vali and Steven return to Vermilion after Christmas, you might find a familiar name. **

**comodo50 : I'm glad you loved it. I hope this one is enjoyable as well.**

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* * *

Words: 18,873

* * *

Chapter 17

* * *

After making sure her bags were packed and her pokemon ready to go, Vali left the pokemon center to the Cinnabar Island Gym. She walked with Balto and Vulpix beside her with Elrond floating beside her enjoying the warm sunlight seeping into his fur. She reached the hotel that guarded the gym and entered it after returning Balto. She was a little startled to find someone other than Blaine at the front desk. Pushing away her surprise, she walked over to the front desk as the man stationed there said, "Hello and welcome to the Big Riddle Inn. My name is Jackson, how may I help you, Miss?"

"I was hoping to speak with Blaine," Vali answered as she reached the desk, "I'm leaving Cinnabar and hoped to talk to him before then,"

Jackson looked a bit surprised, "Oh? Name?"

"Valkyrie Potter-Black though I usually go by Vali," Vali answered as Vulpix sniffed at the front desk and put his paws against the wood.

"Right, Boss-man told me that you might end up stopping by," Jackson bent down and pulled open one of the drawers, "Boss-man wanted me to give this to you if he hadn't gotten back before you're due to leave,"

"Where did he go?" Vali asked as Elrond pulled Vulpix away from the front desk when the not-so little fox tried to get a better look at the top of the desk.

"League Business. Don't know exactly what's going on since I'm only a junior Gym Trainer," Jackson shrugged with a sheepish smile as he stood up properly carrying a leather bound notebook, "Here you go, I'm not exactly sure why he's giving you a journal, but Boss-man never makes it easy to understand him,"

"Thanks," Vali took the notebook from Jackson when he held it out to her, "Any idea when he'll be back?"

Jackson shook his head, "No idea. Boss-man tends to leave at random times and return at random times when he doesn't have any current challengers."

"Well, thanks for giving me this," Vali said as Elrond picked up Vulpix, "Please tell Blaine that Steven and I are leaving in an hour, we both want to thank him for the excellent battles,"

"Of course," Jackson nodded with a light smile, "Have a nice day, Miss Vali,"

"You too," Vali replied as she took her leave.

Elrond released a limp Vulpix once the door had closed behind them and the little fox immediately jumped up to give Vali puppy-dog eyes. She bent down to scratch between his ears before releasing Balto. Elrond spoke as they began their return to the town, " _What did Blaine give you?"_

"Not sure," Vali looked over the notebook and found the leather cover blank prompting her to open it.

A letter slid out and began to fall to the ground. Elrond caught it and handed it to Vali while taking the notebook from her. She saw her name written on the front of the letter. Opening it, she read aloud:

 _Dear Vali,_

 _Despite not yet deciding to take you on as an_ _apprentice I've decided to give you an assignment, I expect you to have at least a portion of this journal filled by the time we next see one another. Write about each of your pokemon, I want you to be a thorough as possible. Examine everything about them from their favorite treats to the moves they learn, I want to know their strengths and weaknesses. As I've heard about you journals from Professor Oak and have even seen a few thanks to him sharing them, you'll likely find it easy to do as I ask. I have no doubt that you'll likely need another journal at some point. Even if you do not become my apprentice, you'll likely find this useful to you._

 _See you at the Conference,  
Blaine._

Vali looked at the journal as she contemplated how exactly such a thing could be useful to her. She took the journal from Elrond as he asked, " _Are you going to do it?"_

"I am," Vali replied while folding the letter back up and placing it within the journal, "If anything, it'll give me something else to focus on when my research paper gets on my nerves,"

* * *

Steven looked at the journal Blaine had given Vali. It was a heavy thing bound in thick black leather. Made to be durable, it was perfect for a traveling trainer being able to withstand most elements for a decent period of time, but not exactly cheap. He had seen one just like it on sale back in Hoenn and he'd bought a few just like it for when he exploring caves. He knew that Vali likely had no idea just what type of journal this was and didn't intend to say anything. He had to wonder why Blaine would give Vali one of these especially when he wasn't sure Vali would become his apprentice, but then again, Blaine had probably decided that she would be. But why not say anything? He looked at Vali as he held the journal out to her deciding to think about it later , "It's a good idea despite the problems it could eventually cause."

"Problems?" Vali looked at him in confusion as she took the journal back.

"Some people would likely try to steal that if only to have a chance to beat you or copy your techniques," Steven explained thinking back to an incident in one of the previous Conferences he'd participated in, "One year during a Conference, an boy a year younger than me had apparently stolen the notebook of an experienced trainer from another Region that had come to participate. No one realized he had done so until they were battling and he pulled out a prized technique of the experienced trainer that hadn't been revealed yet. Hoenn is on very shaky terms with the Orre region because of that kid,"

Steven could remember how furious his father had been at that time. Devon Corp had been in negotiations with the Orre region to have their products sold their only for it to fall through because of that kid's actions. Orre might've been going through a lot of troubles, but they weren't about to let such disrespect slide. Vali's eyes widened and she looked at the journal with a frown, "So it wouldn't be a good idea to use this."

"I didn't say that," Steven shook his head as Mawile walked over and he reached out to scratch one of the spots she couldn't reach on her faux head, "What I'm saying is that you need to make sure not to lose that. It's definitely a really good idea because it'll help you get a better insight into your pokemon. More so than having Elrond translate for you,"

Vali ran her fingers over the smooth surface of the journal with a contemplative look on her face. Steven settled back on his lawn chair and looked out at the deck of the ferry where their pokemon were running around. Eevee was settled beside Vali's own lawn chair. Smaug was curled up in the sunlight sunning himself. Balto was watching over everyone from his place next to Smaug. Pippin and Vulpix were playing around with Elrond keeping an eye on them. Empress was sticking close to Vali not exactly enjoying being on a boat again. Pele was laying beside Aggron taking a nap. Metagross and Claydol were keeping an eye on everything. Cradily was absorbing some sunlight. Blastoise was swinging alongside the ferry for the moment. Each of them were content to enjoy the day, they'd be arriving in Pallet town by midnight tonight.

"I guess I'll use it then," Vali said as she looked up from the journal, "Though how do I start?"

"I'd put your pokemon's basic information on the second page after marking the first as your journal," Steven suggested as Vulpix and Pippin pounced on Balto.

Vali nodded as she took out a pen from her bag and opened the journal, "I'll do just that."

Steven's pokenav went off and he answered it as Balto began to roll around with the two younger pokemon, "Hello."

"Steven," His father, Joseph Stone, peered at him from the pokenav's screen.

"Father," Steven was a little surprised that he was calling, "How are you?"

"I am well," Joseph replied with a slight smile, "And you?"

"I'm doing well," Steven replied as Vali looked up from her writing at him, "Is something wrong?"

"No. I heard from Ryner that you managed to get you second to last badge," Joseph said as Mawile moved to get closer to him, "Just one more and you'll be able to compete in the Indigo Conference," Steven nodded lightly, "And Valkyrie managed it as well?"

"Yes. She did very well and only needed three pokemon to do it," Steven grinned a bit, "It was an amazing battle to watch,"

"I'll have to see if I can't get a video of it," Joseph grinned a bit, "Please give Miss Potter-Black my congratulations for the win,"

"She can hear you, Father," Steven said as Vali flushed a bit at the praise.

Steven turned his pokenav towards her and Joseph said, "Congratulations for the win, Miss Potter-Black."

"Thank you, Mister Stone," Vali told him honestly.

"Call me Joseph," Joseph chuckled lightly, "You've been my son's traveling partner long enough that last names are no needed,"

"Please call me Vali then," Vali replied earning a nod.

"Father, what did you need something?" Steven asked since his father rarely called to just talk outside of the usual Saturday nights.

"I wished to inform you that I'd likely be out of contact for the next few weeks due to an important trip coming up," Joseph answered as Mawile managed to settle on his lap forcing Steven to adjust his hold on the pokenav to hold her without dropping it, "Hello, Mawile," Mawile cooed in greeting with a happy smile, "I wanted you to know now to avoid a panic due to not being able to contact me,"

"Will you call me when you're back in contact then?" Steven asked earning a nod.

"Of course," Joseph agreed likely having been planning to do that anyway, "Steven, I want you to leave a message with one of my secretaries if you win your last gym battle before we talk again. I want to be able to secure some tickets to the Indigo Conference before it's sold out,"

"You're coming to Kanto?" Steven looked at his father in surprise unable to believe that.

Joseph let out a warm chuckle, "Of course, I'm coming to Kanto for the Indigo Conference. Did you really think I'd miss one of my son's Conferences?"

"Well, no. I just didn't think you'd come all the way to Kanto for it," Joseph never ventured far from Hoenn unless it was for business deals.

"I'm not going to miss seeing one of my son's Conferences in person," Joseph looked away from the screen, "Steven, I have to go. I wish you luck, Son,"

"Thanks, Father," Steven replied as Mawile waved, "Talk to you later,"

"Yeah," Joseph ended the call.

Steven looked at his pokenav's screen for a few moments before putting it back into his pocket. Mawile nuzzled into him with a soft coo as Vali asked, "Are you okay, Steven?"

"Just a bit surprised is all," Steven looked at her, "Father doesn't usually leave Hoenn unless it's for a business deal. It's...nice to know he's going to be at the Conference,"

"That a good thing, right?" Vali asked looking at him in concern.

"Yeah. Yes, it'll be really nice," Steven smiled slightly as he hugged Mawile, "Just unexpected,"

Vali grinned at him, "I'm happy for you, Steven."

* * *

After touching down at the small Pallet Town port and thanking the captain of the ferry, Vali called out Balto and got onto his back. Steven called out Metagross, "Will Delia still be awake when we get there?"

"I'm not sure, but probably," Vali urged Balto forward at a fast walk as Steven got onto Metagross' back and followed them, "Considering the fact that she always stays awake until Sirius comes home whenever he gives us a warning no matter how late he'll be arriving, I think it's highly likely she'll be waiting for us,"

"That's nice of her," Steven said as they sped up a bit, "Making sure you come home to someone,"

Vali grinned a bit, "It's just one of the things that make Delia an amazing person."

Soon enough, they reached the Ketchum-Black-Potter residence with both trainers dismounting and returning their pokemon. They headed to the door and Vali unlocked it with her key. Delia was sitting in the living room and quickly greeted them, "Vali! Steven! Welcome back."

Vali hugged Delia tightly, "Thanks for waiting up for us."

"Of course," Delia hugged her back, "Are either of you hungry?"

Vali's stomach chose that moment to rumble causing the fire-type master-in-training to blush, "Yeah. Something to eat would probably be a good idea."

Delia released her with a laugh to give Steven a brief hug, "You two go get your things settled. I'll go make something quick. Try to be somewhat quiet since Ash and Gary are both sleeping upstairs."

"We will," Vali promised as she headed towards her room.

Steven joined her after thanking Delia for allowing him to stay once more. Vali opened her bedroom door and headed inside to drop off her bag. She took out the egg incubator and set it down on her desk to be checked over later. She set down her pokeballs after releasing Elrond, Vulpix, and Eevee. She would release everyone once she'd gotten ready for bed. Picking up Vulpix, she left her room with Eevee trotting beside her and Elrond floating over him. Settling down in the kitchen, she smiled as Delia set a plate of hot stew in front of her, "Here, it might be a bit heavy considering how soon you'll be going to bed, but I know my stew is your favorite."

"Thank you, Delia," Vali told her with a soft grin.

"It's no problem," Delia took Vulpix from her, "Look who's getting so big,"

Vulpix wagged his tail and barked lapping up the praise Delia was bestowing on him. Elrond floated a bowl of water down to Eevee alongside a few berries. Steven entered the kitchen and Delia placed down Vulpix to get him a bowl of stew as well. Delia settled at the table as both trainers dug into the homemade meal with gusto. Vali paused to take a drink of lemonade, "Delia, is Ash having a sleepover?"

"Yes," Delia smiled lightly, "They were trying to stay awake long enough to greet you, but ended up falling asleep around eleven," Her smile dropped, "They've been worried about you,"

Vali froze in the middle of bringing a spoonful of stew to her mouth. Swallowing heavily, she returned it to her bowl, "How much do they know?"

"They only know that something happened in Vermilion City landing you in the hospital," Delia answered with a small grimace, "They do know about the Gyarados attack though,"

Vali was happy that Gary and Ash didn't know the details about the almost mugging. Elrond laid a paw on her shoulder radiating a sense of comfort. She saw the look in Delia's eyes not quite demanding information, but wanting to know what was going on with the fire-type master-in-training. She ate a few more spoonfuls of stew before saying, "I'm not exactly alright. Physically I'm fine, but everything else is still getting there. The whole thing in Vermilion is going to take awhile for me to really get over what happened, but the Gyarados thing is actually a bit easier."

"Easier?" Delia and Steven both looked at her in confusion.

Vali finished her bowl of stew as she thought of how to answer that question. She set down her spoon in the empty bowl and took another drink from her lemonade, "It's easier mostly because the Gyarados are pokemon rather than humans. They attacked for whatever reason and dealing with an attacking pokemon, or multiple ones in this case, is easier for me," She picked up Vulpix as he wandered over and hugged him to her chest, "Pokemon are just easier for me to understand and it's not like I've had so many bad experiences with them."

"Oh, Vali," Delia had a sad look in her eyes.

"I'll be fine, eventually," Vali added that last part almost as an after thought, "Being home for a little while will help. I'm really looking forward to spending some quality time with Ash and Gary not to mention my other pokemon," She gave Delia a tired smile, "Just don't push too much, okay? I've been talking with Rodrick a bit, not much since he's a busy man, but it's been helping,"

"If you need to talk, I'll be here to listen," Delia promised her.

Vali nodded as put down Vulpix to pick up her bowl and place it in the sink, "Thanks, Delia. I'm going to go get ready for bed and get my pokemon settled."

Vali hugged Delia goodnight and patted Steven's shoulder as she left the kitchen. She had no doubt that Delia would be asking Steven for more information if only to get a proper idea of what exactly had happened. She didn't mind it and actually hoped Steven would tell her if only to save the fire-type master-in-training from having to relive those memories. Getting ready for bed, she called everyone out and they all got settled down for the night with Smaug carefully settling down in a way that would keep his wings from hurting.

* * *

Steven watched Vali leave before looking at Delia who was staring after the fire-type master-in-training with a sad look on her face. He felt his heart clench a bit as a small voice in his head wondered if that was a look his mother would've given him had she been alive and he'd been in Vali's place. Pushing away the thought, he told Delia, "She's spoken to Rodrick at least twice a week since the almost mugging happened. He's mostly been focusing on that incident, but from what I've been led to believe, they're also broaching a few things from before she came to this world."

Delia looked a bit surprised, but also thankful. The woman smiled a bit, "I'll have to bake that man a cake or something to thank him," She looked at Steven, "Steven, what exactly happened that night?"

Steven winced as he thought back to it, "Ryner, my friend who'd been sent by my father to help me keep up to date on my paperwork, and I were returning to the pokemon center from where we'd been working on everything when Metagross alerted me to Vali's situation. Had Metagross not shown me a picture of the situation taken from Vali's mind, I wouldn't have believed it given just how absurd someone having a gun was. We hurried to get to her and arrived just in time to deal with the situation though not fast enough," He wished that he'd thought to have Claydol go to Vali and teleport her out, "I took her to the hospital while Ryner got everything settled."

"And the Gyarados attack?" Delia asked making Steven wince again.

Granted it wasn't quite as terrible as the almost mugging, Steven agreed with Vali that dealing with pokemon related problems was easier than the human ones even if their reasoning was diffrent. He spoke as his mind went back to the attack, "As you already know, an abnormally large pod of Gyarados attacked. We were keeping them back and even managed to begin forcing the pod back," He could barely keep back memories of the icy cold rain and bone-chilling roars of Gyarados, "One of the electric-types, I'm still unsure which, managed to chase them away. One of the Gyarados took a parting shot and the ship started to tip. Vali was already sliding away before I could get a grip on her," He clenched his fist underneath the table remembering the sharp spear of fear and dread that had torn through him, "Vali did something with her magic that righted the ship. I got to her after she passed out. It took her a day to wake up."

Steven inwardly flinched as he remembered the heavy bruises and cuts that had decorated Vali's visible skin. It had been nothing short of a miracle that she hadn't suffered any worse injuries than the fracture. He pushed the memory from his mind as Delia said, "She's very lucky."

"She is," Steven agreed as he unclenched his fist, "Delia, I'm sorry that I've been unable to keep Vali from getting hurt,"

"It's not your fault, Steven," Delia shook her head and offered him a kind smile, "As Vali likes to say, the life of a trainer is one full of danger. While some of it shouldn't have happened, it did and none of us could have known it would happen. I know that you would've done your best to keep her safe had you known this would happen, so don't apologize for that," Steven opened his mouth to protest only to close it knowing that she was right, "Don't stay up too much longer, Steven,"

"I won't," Steven nodded to her as he looked at the bowl in front of him.

"When you're finished eating, you can just fill the bowl up with water and put it in the sink," Delia said as she stood up, "I'll deal with it in the morning. Goodnight, Steven,"

"Goodnight, Delia," Steven replied.

Delia headed off to bed and Steven soon did the same after doing as the woman requested. He paused outside Vali's door and peaked inside to find her curled up with the pokemon she called family. He smiled a bit before closing the door and heading to his own room. Letting everyone out, he got ready for bed with Metagross asking, " _Are you alright, Master Steven?"_

"I'm fine," Steven laid down and his pokemon got settled down for the night with Mawile jumping on the bed to curl up against his side.

Steven smiled as he rubbed the steel/fairy-type's back earning a low coo from Mawile. Metagross spoke as they settled down beside the bed, " _Miss Delia is a nice human."_

"She's an amazing one," Steven closed his eyes.

Just as amazing as Vali, Steven inwardly mused as he slowly sank into the embrace of sleep.

* * *

Vali woke up to Elrond holding both Ash and Gary away from the bed. Ash was squirming while Gary stayed limp like a little puppy probably from having Alakazam do that multiple times before. Gently pushing the pokemon curled up on her chest off, she sat up with a soft yawn, "What time is it?"

 _"Nine thirty,"_ Elrond answered while giving both boys a glare that had them looking a little sheepish, " _Delia asked for them to leave you be once they'd woken up at seven, but apparently decided that waiting was boring,"_

"We really wanted to see you, Vali," Ash told her as he finally went still in Elrond's hold.

Vali rubbed at her eyes, "You two do realize that Steven and I didn't get back until after midnight, right?"

Both boys cringed a bit as if they'd started to realize just what the problem was, they muttered, "Sorry, Vali."

"It's fine," Vali yawned as she began to stretch a bit, "Go tell Delia I'm awake please. I'll be out in a few minutes,"

They both nodded and Elrond released them from his hold. Ash darted past her pokemon to give Vali a hug, "I'm glad your home, Vali."

"Me too," Vali ruffled his hair, "Now out before I have Elrond zap you,"

Ash gained a look of horror and quickly let go of her before speeding out of the room with Gary hot on his heels. Snickering as she watched them go, Vali stretched properly hearing something in her back pop a bit. Elrond closed the door behind the two boys as all of her pokemon began to go through their morning rituals. Vulpix jumped off the bed onto Balto's back as the Arcanine yawned. Smaug carefully stretched himself out making sure not to move his wings too much. Pippin jumped off the bed to stretch out. Empress rolled onto her side and promptly went back to sleep until Elrond picked her up. Eevee stretched himself carefully before moving to nudge her side. Pele just shook herself before trotting slowly around the room. Picking up Eevee, she got off of her bed and returned all her pokemon save for Eevee, Vulpix, and Elrond as the three were the least likely to cause any damage.

Delia offered her a light smile as she entered the kitchen, "Good morning, Vali. I hope you're not angry with Ash or Gary."

"Not enough to let Elrond shock them," Vali headed to the counter after setting Eevee down and prepared food for the pokemon currently in residence while Delia did the same for the humans.

Delia let out a soft laugh knowing quite well that Elrond's shocks rarely caused any damage save for a bit of numbness and singed skin. After preparing the food, Vali let out her pokemon while making sure to keep Steven's pokemon's food up on the counter for now. When Steven entered the kitchen, she placed the food down for his pokemon who started eating immediately after their release. Delia looked at her curiously, "So what's the plan for today, Vali?"

"Head up to the lab and have Professor Oak check on Smaug's wings," Vali answered after swallowing her mouthful of bacon, "I'll spend time with my pokemon and just relax today though I might take Balto on a run with Arwen," She looked between Ash and Gary, "I thought you two had school,"

"It got cancelled," Ash told her with an excited grin, "Apparently the power went out and the generator broke down,"

"Not to mention the pipes underneath the west side of the school burst," Gary added clearly looking happy at the prospect of not having to deal with school for the moment.

"So that means you're likely going to be out of school for a week at least?" Vali asked earning two joyful nods, "I have no idea why you two are so happy. You'll be paying for it come summer since the school will have you make up for the time they lost,"

Both boys looked horrified at the prospect, Vali inwardly giggled at the looks on their faces. Delia spoke up with laughter clear in her voice, "I was hoping that you might be willing to look after these two. At least until Sirius arrives."

"Sure thing," Vali didn't mind looking after the two especially since she had a good way to keep them entertained enough to not misbehave, "When is he arriving?"

"Tomorrow after lunch," Delia answered with a bright smile.

"Hey! That means Siri will be home in time for your birthday, Mom!" Ash grinned as he practically shouted that.

"Yup. If there's one thing I'd want for my birthday, it's to spend time with my family all together," Delia said with a content smile on her face.

* * *

After dropping off Smaug's pokeball and the first draft of her research paper, Vali went to see the rest of her pokemon who'd been lingering close to the lab waiting for their trainer to return. Arwen raced up first quickly followed by Celina in the air and Idril in the ground. Terra followed after Idril just a little bit slower, but no less happy to see her trainer. After releasing her other pokemon, she greeted the ones that had been dearly missed. Hugging Arwen and Celina around the neck, she murmured her greetings and how happy she was to see them again. Letting them go see the others, she dropped down to the ground and hugged her ground-types. Terra burrowed into her side while Idril clambered into her lap nuzzling the trainer they'd both dearly missed. Carefully running her fingers down the steadily forming spikes on Idril's back feeling glad that they wouldn't sharpen until the Sandshrew evolved, she looked over all four of her pokemon as they go reacquainted with their missing family members.

Arwen was looking a bit bigger and coat containing a glossy sheen meaning someone had been groomed her recently. Celina was plumper and her crest becoming just a bit brighter meaning mating season was likely around the corner for her. Terra was a bit bigger and her smooth rocky skin gleamed despite digging through the earth. Idril showed the largest physical changes of the four. Alongside the increase in height and weight, Idril's spikes were coming in very well and her coloring was lightening as the claws tipping her fingers were lengthening. Much like Professor Oak had told her after she'd dropped off Smaug, it would only take a battle or two before she evolved.

Arwen nosed Pippin snorting when the spark pokemon batted at her nose. She looked at Vali and neighed at her clearly wondering if this was really Pippin. Giggling softly, the fire-type master-in-training told her, "Yes, Arwen, that's Pippin. He evolved during his first Gym Battle."

Arwen neighed and butted her head against Pippin's side clearly offering her congratulations. Celina hopped over from where she was speaking with Balto and nudged Vali with a soft trill. Concern was clear in her eyes, Balto must've been telling Celina about what happened since leaving last time. Reaching up, she scratched Celina's breast feathers, "Celina, I'm fine. Things were a bit rough for awhile while we were away, I will fully admit that, but I'm fine now."

Celina nudged Vali again before moving behind her trainer. She was about to turn when Celina's head settled on hers and the Pidgeot's wings curled around her. Celina began to trill softly. Celina's body pressed against her back radiating a gentle kind of warmth that left the fire-type master-in-training smiling as Terra and Idril crowded closer. Arwen pushed Celina's wings aside to lay down on the side that Terra wasn't taking up leaning against her trainer's side. Closing her eyes for a moment, she murmured, "I missed you four so much. I'm glad to be home with you."

* * *

Vali looked between Steven, Ash, and Gary struggling not to laugh at the fact all three were completely covered in mud. The twigs, leaves, and grass sticking to their bodies just made it all the more amusing. Elrond's amusement flowed down their bond and she suddenly lost all ability to not laugh at the three. Throwing back her head, she burst out laughing as Elrond snickered beside her. Ash's pouting face and the putout look on Gary's just made it all the more funny. When her laughter faded into snickers, she told Ash and Gary, "Go hose yourselves down, you look like a Muk made of mud decided to hug you," The two trotted off with grumbles heading for one of the nearby water-types to be hosed down, "How in the world did this even happen?"

"I made a miscalculation of just how easy it would be to watch them," Steven admitted with a sheepish smile, "I am sorry for doubting you,"

"Glad to hear it, you should be glad that there isn't any poop mixed into the mud," Vali was treated to the sight of Steven's look of utter disgust, "Come on, I'll show you to where you'll be able to clean off in peace,"

"Not going to make me hose down?" Steven asked as Vali began leading him around the lab.

"I am, but you're going to use an actual hose rather than a water-type," Vali showed him the hoses set up in the stone courtyard like area she'd led him to, "I'll go get a few towels. I'll show you to one of the indoor showers and see about getting a change of clothes for you,"

Steven handed her his pokenav, a rather expensive looking watch, and his pokeball. Vali took them inside and found Professor Oak. Professor Oak looked at the items she was holding and quickly figured out what happened, "I assume Steven's washing off whatever the boys managed to drag him through?"

"Yup. Do you mind him using one of the indoor showers?" Vali asked as she set Steven's things down.

"Not at all, I assume you'll be taking him some towels then going to grab some clothes for him?" Professor Oak asked as he typed something into his computer, "If so, I might be able to get some of my son's clothes. Steven has a similar build to Blue if a bit leaner,"

"Thanks, Professor. I'll make sure they're returned as soon as possible," Vali promised earning a light nod.

* * *

To keep Ash and Gary occupied after they both got cleaned up, Vali took them both outside where her pokemon were waiting. Ash and Gary both looked at her pokemon with eager grins clearly ready to have some fun. Ash turned his head to look at Vali, "So what are we doing?"

"You two will be practicing your pokemon battling skills," Vali answered as she gestured to her pokemon, "You'll both be allowed to use one of my pokemon for the battle. You don't get to choose who you'll be using since it'll be up to them and I'll stop the match if something happens that I don't like,"

"Really?" Gary burst out looking about ready to jump up and down while Ash was trembling with excitement net to him.

"Yup," Vali turned to her pokemon, "Who wants to battle with Ash?" Pippin bounced over to the boy, "And who wants to battle with Gary?" Arwen darted over and began to prance around the boy, "Let's move to the battlefield and get started,"

Vali gave both boys a rundown of each pokemon's moves after scanning Arwen which showed her that the Ponyta had learned Flame Charge and Agility during the time they'd been apart. Moving to the spot traditionally used by a referee, she waited for all participants to get into position before announcing, "This is a one on one battle between Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town and Gary Oak of Pallet Town. The match will end either when a pokemon is knocked out or I deem it too dangerous to continue. Are all participants ready?" Each gave their agreement, "Then," She raised her hand before bringing it down," Begin!"

Ash charged right out of the gate with, "Pippin! Thunder!"

Vali wanted to face palm at the use of Thunder so soon into the match. Pippin glanced at her as he began to charge the attack. Only an amateur would use Thunder during the first portion of a match especially without boosting it with Charge. Gary ordered Arwen, "Move once he starts to attack. Use Flame Charge to get out of the way and Flame Wheel to attack him when he's done."

A smart strategy that utilized Arwen's natural speed. Vali was somewhat impressed as she watched Arwen dodge the bolt of lighting that crashed down towards her as flames coated her body and boosted her speed. Arwen slammed into Pippin sending the Luxio stumbling back with a loud yowl. Ash seemed to scramble for a moment before shouting, "Pippin, Baby-Doll Eyes and Leer."

Arwen froze as two conflicting impulses went through her after locking eyes with Pippin. Pippin used that momentary lapse of movement to use Charge. Gary muttered something under his breath before shouting, "Arwen, Growl!"

Arwen released a loud neigh that sounded deep from within her chest. Pippin backed up a bit as Gary followed up with an order to use Flame Charge again. Pippin dodged Arwen looking a bit panicked as Ash shouted, "Use Ice Fang, Pippin!"

Pippin dodged around Arwen before jumping at the Ponyta as she rushed back towards him. Vali felt a bit of pride when she realized that Ash hadn't just used Ice Fang to attack. The ice of Ice Fang would keep the flames coating Arwen's body from burning his mouth as he bit down. Pippin would then use Bite to inflict a bit more damage. Granted, it would probably take time and more experience to ensure that Ash wouldn't immediately rush towards the strongest attack. Seeing Pippin wince when he landed after releasing Arwen's shoulder, she called the match, "That's enough."

Gary frowned at her, "But we could go longer."

"Perhaps," Vali gestured for Arwen and Pippin to come over to her side, "But just because you can go longer doesn't mean you should,"

Vali began to check over her pokemon as Ash and Gary followed them. She pointed out the burns on Pippin's paws and around his muzzle. She showed Ash and Gary how to treat the injuries they had. Ash frowned at the burns on Pippin's muzzle, "How did that happen? I had him use Ice Fang."

"Ice Fang covers his mouth and a small portion of the area around it. It doesn't cover the entire muzzle," Vali explained as she carefully rubbed some burn paste over Pippin's muzzle.

"Oh," Ash gave Pippin an apologetic look, "I'm sorry, Pip,"

Pippin mewed at him before wincing as Vali touched one of the more serious burns. Gary frowned slightly, "Will he have to see Gramps?"

"He shouldn't need to, but I'm going to have Professor Oak see to him regardless. Same with Arwen," Vali finished caring for Pippin's burns and moved to care for Arwen's bite wound, "When you two become trainers, you'll learn that it's best to ensure your pokemon are cared for even if they're not hurt very badly. Non-serious injuries can turn serious in a moment," She glanced at Ash, "Where is Pidgey?"

"She's with Professor Oak," Ash answered with a slight wince, "She got into a fight with one of the Spearow. While she won and managed to get back home, Pidgey was pretty injured,"

Vali winced at that, "Well, she's in really good hands at least. While I'm here, I'll help you two figure out a proper training plan if you'd like."

"Please and thank you," Ash grinned bright while Gary frowned.

Looking at Gary, Vali knew he was likely more than a little bit jealous about Ash having a pokemon. She sprayed Arwen's shoulder with a potion as a plan slowly formed in her mind. It would be nothing short of a miracle to get the man to agree, but it would ensure that a fight wouldn't break out because of jealousy.

* * *

Professor Oak handed over Smaug's pokeball as he considered her idea, "It has merit and Gary would definitely benefit from having a companion when not around Ash."

"I'm thinking either a Spearow or Rattata," Vali said as she clipped Smaug's pokeball to her belt, "Either would work, they're both relatively on the same level as a Pidgey. Though the same could be said for a Meowth,"

"Not another Pidgey?" Professor Oak asked with a raised eyebrow as he pulled out her research paper which was multiple pages more than when she'd given it to him.

"While a second Pidgey could work, it would likely cause more jealousy between the two than Gary not getting a pokemon at all," Vali took her research paper already dreading going through the notes that Professor Oak had added, "It would also expand on both Ash's and Gary's knowledge of pokemon which is always nice. They need to be aware of any differences in care,"

Professor Oak sat down at his desk as he considered her words. Vali had spoken to Professor Oak the moment Ash and Gary had gone to check on Pidgey with Steven watching over them. The idea was to get a pokemon for Gary. One of the normal ones that kids sometimes ended up getting as a pet that later became one of their partner pokemon. While Gary would likely never be able to replicate Ash's stupidly lucky adventure to get Pidgey, he would have a pokemon like Ash and be able to keep from getting too jealous of his friend. It wasn't full proof especially given that the boys could be competitive and there was a chance they'd end up fracturing their friendship regardless of what she did. That was something she acknowledge even if the thought wasn't pleasant, the two boys have pokemon that had practically grown up alongside them would mean they'd have more protection during the course of their journeys.

"I admit to having similar thoughts," Professor Oak finally stated.

"If it helps, I have also considered another reason why this is a good idea," Vali noticed the curiosity in his eyes and quickly added, "Both desire the path of the trainer which is a dangerous road as everyone knows, we both know how bad that could go regardless of the preparations done with them. I'm going to journey with Ash much like Steven has, but I doubt Gary will choose to join us. With that in mind, it would be for the best if Gary is able to raise a pokemon as Ash has if only to have more protection than a starter pokemon could offer. Especially if said starter pokemon decides their trainer isn't worthy,"

While it doesn't happen often thanks to the young age most starter pokemon are given out, it has happened multiple times over the course of history. Not all trainers paired with such a starter survive being abandoned, the other pokemon they've captured turning on the newly abandoned trainer upon seeing weakness. Each region had a specific starter that did that sometimes if their trainer proved unworthy, Kanto had two the Charmander-line and the Bulbasaur-line. The Charmander-line needed a strong trainer with confidence and little weakness. The Bulbasaur-line required their trainers to possess a strong spirit and a sense of balance. If the trainer presented to them proved to be less than what they wanted, the pokemon would refuse to work with them. While it was possible to earn the respect and adoration of both, it was extremely difficult and most trainers that failed to be acknowledge by their 'pokemon' failed to do so.

Professor Oak nodded as he turned to his computer, "You're right, Vali. Especially when you consider who their father's are and who exactly Gary's mother is, I will begin looking for a proper companion. What pokemon would you suggest?"

"Other than what I've already listed, I believe Gary might benefit from a Bellsprout," Vali answered after a few moments of thought, "They're not exactly the strongest pokemon, but they aren't weak either. They grow slowly, but any trainer worth their salt would be able to bring forth their full potential with some patience," She smiled a bit, "Gary might not be as hot-headed as Ash sometimes, but he could stand to learn some patience as well. Regardless of what pokemon he ends up getting, I would advise keeping it in region to be safe,"

"I seem to have a lot to think about," Professor Oak began to type on his computer, "Smaug can begin exercising them. Only light exercise though, they took a lot of damage after all. Smaug will likely find them rather stiff for about a week, but that will fade with time,"

"I'll keep that in mind," Vali thought about what she'd do to help Smaug out.

"I've put together notes on your research paper as you've probably guessed. Overall, it isn't a bad first attempt, but you can definitely do better," Professor Oak glanced at her, "Is there anything else you need?"

"Not at the moment, I'll collect Ash and we'll be out of your hair. Do you want me to take Gary with us for dinner?" Vali asked earning a nod, "Make sure you eat, Professor. Delia will get annoyed if you don't,"

"I will," Professor Oak shuddered a little, "No need to threaten me, Vali,"

Vali tossed him a grin over her shoulder as she walked out of his office, "But it works so well!"

Snickering as she listened to the Professor's grumblings, Vali walked away from his office to where Gary, Ash and Steven were.

* * *

Smaug growled as he carefully stretched out his wings visible wincing. Vali began to help him out gently massaging the membranes with an oil that Professor Oak had recommended. After a full minute with them full stretched out, she motioned for him to slowly close them. After doing it one more time, she had Smaug take a break and rubbed some homemade berry-based salve into Smaug's right wing where it had been broken. Smaug laid his head in her lap with a tired groan and she stroked between his horns, "You did good, Smaug. You'll be flying around in no time."

Smaug released a puff of smoke from his nose with a snort. Vali heard the backdoor open and looked to see Delia walking out. Delia looked at Smaug with a small frown, "How is he?"

"Tired and really stiff," Vali answered as Smaug closed his eyes, "The pain isn't as bad as it was before,"

"That's good," Delia walked down the small set of steps leading down from the back deck and walked across the patio to where Vali was sitting, "So Blaine likes you?"

"I'd like to think he does," Vali focused on the warm scales beneath her fingers and the soft rumble coming from Smaug's chest as he began to doze, "You're worried,"

Delia let out a low sigh as she sat down beside Vali, "Is it really surprising that I am?" Vali shook her head slowly, "How are you really?"

Vali bit her bottom lip thinking about how to answer that question, "Today or usually?"

"Either," Delia picked up Vulpix who'd wandered away from the cuddle pile that had formed while everyone watched Smaug complete his exorcises.

"Some days, it's okay and I can put everything behind me. Other days, I'm not okay and can't keep my mind from straying to it," Vali answered as Smaug nuzzled into her stomach, "Today, I'm okay for the most part. Being around my pokemon and everyone else really helps," She looked towards her pokemon smiling at the sight of Celina leaning into Balto, "It was difficult being back in Vermilion City and I felt like it was difficult to breath until we got to the port. Even then, I didn't feel relaxed until we were on that boat and Vermilion was a receding mass behind us," Her smile dropped, "It'll be awhile before I feel relaxed in Vermilion,"

"That understandable," Delia reached out to take one of Vali's hands and squeezed, "And the Gyarados attack?"

"A lot easier to deal with," Vali's smile returned albeit weakly, "If you take away Empress and I almost falling off the boat, it was actually really fun if a bit scary. Looking back, I can feel the rush of excitement burning through my veins and just how..." She struggled to find the right word, " _Right_ it felt to be in that position," She winced a bit hearing how that sounded once she'd said it out loud, "Sorry,"

"Don't be, I can understand somewhat," Delia waved off her apology with a slight smile, "I was a pokemon trainer as well though I preferred the contests to everything else. Exploring the world with your pokemon beside you and facing dangers, I can definitely understand it even if I never went through something quite so exciting,"

Vali looked at her curiously, "Delia, do you still have your pokemon?"

"Only two of them, the rest either passed away or went off to start their own families after Ash was born," Delia smiled sadly, "I miss them everyday, but don't begrudge them their happiness,"

"Which pokemon do you still have?" Vali wondered why she hadn't met either of them if Delia still had the two around.

"I have a Meganium and an Altaria," Delia answered with a fond smile, "Maggie tends to the berry orchard and lives mainly at the lab. Aria spends her time ferry the lab assistants around the Corral to help keep track of all the pokemon living there,"

"How come I've never met either of them?" Vali had visited the orchard and orchard after all.

"You have," Delia retorted with a soft giggle, "Quite a few times actually while at the lab, they're the ones that helped you keep Ash and Gary out of trouble after Daisy left for her journey. They're rather friendly,"

Vali remembered what Delia was talking about with a small jolt and gasped out, "You have a shiny Altaria?!" Delia let out a loud laugh and grinned as she nodded showing where Ash had inherited his smile from, "Where in the name of Arceus did you get a shiny Altaria?"

"I went through Hoenn during my first journey since Kanto doesn't really cater to Coordinators," Delia answered as her eyes gained a distant look to them, "During a rather storm, I ended up coming across a flock of Altaria who were kind enough to let me stay in their cave with them. I ended up bonding with a little Swablu that had been injured while the flock went to find a good place to wait out the storm and ended up taking him with me,"

Vali smiled a bit before frowning as confusion hit her, "Wait, him? Why is his name Aria?"

"Aria liked the name and wouldn't take on another," Delia giggled a bit, "Not to mention, everyone assumed he was a female. The looks on their faces when they realized Aria was a male were hilarious,"

And that was part of why Sirius had fallen for Delia, Vali grinned, "I'll bet."

* * *

Ash whooped and hollered as Celina soared through the sky. The cries of joy ringing through the air showed that Gary was having just as much fun. Vali kept a firm hold on Ash making sure he didn't fall as Celina twirled and danced through the air. While flying alone was something she loved, she didn't mind flying with Ash as it was quite a lot of fun. Despite not being used to flying with Ash's added weight, the Pidgeot didn't seem to show any sign of being burdened. But even with the thick clothes that the slightly chilly spring air called for, she was beginning to get cold. Raising her hand, she signaled to Steven before directing Celina into a controlled dive.

The Pidgeot landed not too long later and Ash practically tumbled out of the saddle pulling up the goggles he'd borrowed from the lab. Dismounting far more gracefully despite the slight numbness caused by legs that had nearly fallen asleep, Vali unsaddled Celina while praising her pokemon for such a nice flight. Celina puffed up her chest and absorbed the compliments. She fed Celina some berries and promised that they'd go on a solo flight sometimes soon. Glancing at Ash, she couldn't tell if his trembling was from the cold that had seeped through his clothes or because of the excitement of flying.

Steven landed not too far away with Skarmory and Gary repeated Ash's landing. Steven dismounted and unsaddled his pokemon with practiced ease. Gary and Ash immediately began chattering about their flights. Skarmory and Celina took off to the flying-type part of the Corral. Steven walked over to her, "Nice flight?"

"Mhmm. I might prefer flying alone, but I don't actually mind flying with Ash," Vali took off her thick coat, "It was fun and gave me a good idea of where Celina stands with her flight capabilities,"

"Gary wasn't a bad companion though I don't think Skarmory enjoyed having a second rider," Steven ran a hand through his windswept hair and checked his watch, "We should head back to your house, it's almost lunch,"

"Right," Vali nodded as she focused on the boys, "Ash! Gary!" The two paused to look at her, "We're going home. Get your butts moving, Delia will have lunch ready by the time we get there,"

The two beamed and quickly took off running towards the lab to ditch their borrowed gear. Steven chuckled as they followed after the boys, "That was easy."

"If for nothing else, they'll behave if food is involved especially when Delia cooks," Vali glanced at Steven's watch, "Hey, Steven? Why do you have a watch? You have a perfectly good pokenav,"

"Once you get deep enough in a mountain, the signal of a pokenav breaks up rather horribly. Seeing as my father's company has yet to figure out how to stop that, I'm going to use this," Steven lifted up his watch, "A watch like this doesn't have that problem and will always tell me the right time," He smiled slightly, "It's also a gift from my father. Back when I started my journey,"

"That was really nice of him," Vali commented earning a light nod.

* * *

Sirius was there when they arrived for lunch which ended up turning into a small welcome home party complete with some cake. The day afterward until Gary went home and Ash went to bed was filled with light hearted fun. They played around with Vali and Steven getting time to relax with their pokemon while Sirius took over watching the two boys who were happily badgering him for stories. Ash went to bed an hour after Professor Oak took Gary home giving the other occupants the ability to discuss things the boy wasn't ready to hear about. Vali was settled against Balto's side with Smaug's head in her lap. Vulpix was wedged between Balto and Vali's sides. Empress was settled against Smaug's stomach. Pele and Pippin were settled down together. Eevee and Elrond were settled on the couch behind her. Elrond spoke in her mind, " _Ash is asleep."_

Vali noticed everyone stiffen a bit meaning Elrond had projected that thought to those in the room with them. She looked at Sirius with a slight frown having noticed how tense he was all day, "What's going on, Padfoot? You've been tense since coming home."

Sirius visibly winced much to Vali's shock and concern. Delia placed a hand on his arm, "Siri?"

"Normally, I wouldn't say anything given that this is technically classified, but you two," Sirius nodded to Vali and Steven, "Are part of why we managed to find things out,"

"Find out what?" Steven asked with a frown looking tense.

Sirius' jaw tensed and his eyes darkened as he said, "You two have likely found out from someone high up enough to know things that a Team might become active, correct?"

Vali jerked a bit and tensed as her hand stopped rubbing Smaug's scales. She stared at Sirius with wide eyes as dread pooled in her stomach. Delia let out a sharp gasp clutching Sirius' arm harder. Steven's mouth twisted into a deep frown as he said, "Yes."

Sirius sighed deeply looking older than his years, "I am not surprised and won't ask who told you."

"But you're going to confirm it," Steven practically hissed out.

Sirius nodded slowly, "Yes, we have confirmation that a Team has been formed. While we're still in the early phases of our investigation, we have been able to confirm it."

"Who?" Vali murmured earning Sirius' attention, "Which Team is it? You wouldn't make such a big deal if it weren't bad,"

"Team Rocket," Sirius answered as he gave her a measured look.

Delia let out a loud gasp looking far paler than she should have been. Steven's eyes went wide and his jaw dropped a bit. Vali knew she was likely a mixture of the two and probably looking a bit horrified as well. Team Rocket, one of the few Teams to earn an immortalized name that would go down into history as the most powerful and inhumane organization to plague Kanto, had been confirmed to have returned. Looking at Delia who'd lived through the last appearance of that organization, the normally sunny woman looking pale with multiple emotions running across her face showed just how deep the scars caused by Team Rocket were.

Vali swallowed heavily, "Padfoot, are you sure?"

"All the markers are there according to the higher ups and those that had been around last time," Sirius answered with a frown, "We don't think it's another copy cat,"

Vali hoped it was, but regardless the news that a Team would once more be plaguing Kanto sent chills down her spine. Which Region would follow next? Johto? Hoenn? Sinnoh? Alola? It was up in the air, but everyone knew that another Team wouldn't be that far off from appearing. Steven spoke as he set his hand on one of Metagross' legs, "Have the other Regions been informed? Will the public be informed?"

"At the current moment, Kanto's government has decided to keep the information on a need to know basis until we know just how bad things are," Sirius answered earning a frown from Steven, "Both the Kanto branch of the Ranger Union and the League agree that it is for the best,"

"How is that for the best?" Steven demanded looking angry, "If Kanto is going to be under siege by another Team, it won't be long until the other Regions follow,"

"They do not want to cause a panic," Sirius replied as he wrapped an arm around Delia, "Which while I don't agree with it, it's the best thing they can do right now especially since they're trying to keep quiet about it," The Grimm animagus grimaced, "Trust me, I don't agree with it, but the higher ups aren't willing to listen,"

Steven let out a low growl radiating displeasure, "This isn't right."

"A majority of my Branch agree with you," Sirius looked at Vali, "Now more than ever, we need to keep our magic a secret. If a Team, regardless of whether it truly is Rocket reborn, learns of our abilities-"

"We'll be hunted for the rest of our lives," Vali cut him off, "I know, Siri. Trust me when I say that I know, you don't need to say anything," Vulpix nuzzled into her with a low whine, "What's going to happen now?"

"A thorough investigation will be done on multiple fronts," Sirius answered looking tired, "The news will be kept silent until either they commit an act that warrants the public being informed or they're taken down,"

Without speaking, Steven got up and headed out of the house after returning Metagross.

* * *

Steven clenched his fist as he struggled to steady his breathing despite the rage boiling through his skin. He heard footsteps coming from behind him and spoke, "I had to leave."

"I figured," Vali said as she came to his side with Balto trotting beside her, "Though I'm having trouble understanding why exactly," She looked at him in concern, "I get being afraid of the Teams and being angry at what they've done. I get the feeling there's more to it than that,"

Sometimes Steven hated how observant and intuitive Vali was, he latched onto the calming presence of Metagross. Despite knowing that Vali would forgive him if he lashed out, he didn't want to take a chance of doing something like that. He looked at her, "One of the Team that appeared in Hoenn killed my mother."

Vali's eyes went wide with horror before softening into understanding. No hint of pity filled her gaze unlike the many others who'd heard of it happening. Steven felt a strange sense of gratitude towards his traveling companion. She brushed her fingers along Balto's fur, "That would make sense, do you know which one?"

Steven shook his head, "No, Hoenn was dealing with three Teams at the same time and none of them ever admitted to killing her," He swallowed thickly pushing back the burning in his eyes, "I..."

"You hate any Team because of what they did to you," Vali finished for him, "That's okay, Steven. No one could blame you for hating the Teams. I bet a lot of people feel the same,"

A question that had burned inside his mind since hearing the story about Vali's own parents dying popped up as Steven looked at her, "Do you hate him? The one that took away your parents?"

To Steven's surprise, Vali shook her head as she gripped Balto's fur, "No, I don't think I do. Despite the fact Voldemort killed my parents, he did it when I was too young to actually know them. I hate that he killed them, but don't personally hate him. Had I been older and able to remember them, I probably would hate him," She frowned slightly, "I don't know why he did it either and that makes hating him even more difficult. All I really feel towards him is anger and pity. A lot of it, but no true hate."

"You pity him?" Steven couldn't believe his ears.

"Considering the fact he was a shade the last time I saw him, I'd say pity is pretty much the only think someone could feel towards him," Vali's lips twitched into a slight smile, "Evil guy that he is, is stuck unable to truly interact with the world around him unless he convinces some poor idiot to let him posses them,"

Hearing her explanation, Steven could see Vali's point. Letting out a soft if a bit hysterical laugh, he said, "I can see it," He rubbed at his eyes, "I'll go apologize to Sirius."

"How come? You didn't say anything bad or make any false accusations," Vali looked a little confused.

"For getting angry with him and leaving like that," Steven answered as he dropped his hands, "I shouldn't have done it,"

Vali eyed him for a moment before nodding, "Alright. Do you want to head inside now?"

Steven nodded and they started walking back inside. He looked at Vali, "Vali?" She hummed lightly, "Thanks for coming after me."

"No problem, it's what friends do," Vali grinned at him.

* * *

Despite all the seriousness and dark talk last night, Delia's birthday party was happy and bright with everyone enjoying themselves. Ash, Gary, and Vali got to meet Delia's pokemon properly. Aria and Maggie greeted the three humans happily before paying quite a bit of attention to their dear trainer. In light of the fact it was Delia's birthday, the woman was kept out of the kitchen with the resident fire-type master-in-training taking over cooking for the day. Delia allowed it with a light laugh and a few jokes before introducing Sirius to her beloved pokemon.

With the help of Professor Oak, Ash and Gary got Delia a cook book on Unovian style cooking in addition to the hand-made card they'd made for her. Professor Oak had gifted her with a few baggies of berry seeds that weren't normally grown in the region. Daisy had sent along some t-shirts from Hoenn through her Grandfather. Steven merely wished her a happy birthday not having known if he should've gotten her a gift. Sirius and Vali presented Delia with the jewelry that the fire-type master-in-training had gotten on Cinnabar. Seeing the look of shock and delight on Delia's face made it all the more worth it for her, she was glad that she'd gone searching through Cinnabar rather than stayed in the more populated areas.

Vali snapped quite a few pictures making sure to capture the look on Delia's face whenever she opened a present. Delia looked at her in shock as Sirius admitted that she'd gotten both gifts, "Where on earth did you buy these, Vali?"

"Cinnabar," Vali launched into the explanation of how with a slight grin.

Professor Oak let out a laugh and patted Vali's shoulder, "You've definitely got some odd luck, Vali. Not many would have managed something like that."

Vali handed her camera to Elrond before announcing, "Cake time!"

* * *

Laying on her stomach, Vali was looking through her pokedex trying to figure out how she'd battle against Giovanni. Giovanni mainly used Ground-types with an occasional other pokemon being thrown in like Persian. The pokemon he tended to use were usually the bulkier ground-types like Rhydon, Nidoking, and Nidoqueen. He used Dugtrio as well which would mean an underground battle was likely in her future. Ryhorn were smarter than their previous evolution, but it was heavier than before not to mention a lot slower. Underground it was a lot faster, it practically swam whenever underneath the earth's surface. Nidoking and Nidoqueen weren't that quick either, but they packed a serious punch especially given just how powerful their poison was. Given that Giovanni only accepted battles from those with 7 badges, it meant he didn't need to pull his punches.

Frowning slightly as she thought carefully about what she'd be able to do, Vali knew that Elrond could learn Grass Knot which Steven had in his TM case. Solar Beam was also an option if she set things up which meant Smaug and Balto would be covered alongside Arwen though the fire-type master-in-training didn't know if she'd actually end up using the Ponyta. It would be a valuable move to have regardless. Hyper Beam would also work even if there wasn't much of an advantage and it would prepare her pokemon for higher level battles though finding a spot to train them to use it was going to be difficult. Ariel Ace would be possible for Balto and Celina. But that would only help so much, she would need to practice battling against ground-types and work on increasing her pokemon's ability to utilize their longer range attacks more effectively.

Vali's train of thought broke when a knock echoed on her bedroom door. She saved what she'd written while calling out, "Come in."

The door opened to reveal Sirius, "You busy, Pup?"

"Just trying to figure out ways to fight Giovanni," Vali answered as Sirius walked into the room, "Which is going to be a lot more difficult than it had been with Flint," She looked at him curiously, "What's up, Padfoot?"

Sirius closed the door behind him, "I wanted to apologize."

"About what?" Vali frowned in confusion.

"About not letting you enjoy your time home worry free," Sirius answered with a tired smile on his face, "You've already got a lot to worry about and didn't need anything added to it,"

Vali shook her head, "It's okay, Padfoot. I needed to hear that stuff and it's better to learn now than later," She set down her pokedex and pushed herself up to sit properly, "I'm glad that you told me then especially since you're probably going to be called back to duty soon enough," She looked at him curiously, "When are you going to be going back anyway?"

"I've got a few more days here, why?" Sirius asked with a raised eyebrow.

"If Professor Oak agrees, we could take Delia, Ash, and Gary to Celadon City for the day," Vali suggested earning a slight smile, "I need some new TMs and could probably get some more clothes. I know Delia would probably enjoy a day away probably shopping for some things she can't really get here in Pallet. Ash and Gary would probably love the chance to explore. You could probably take her somewhere nice for dinner while Steven and I take the boys around,"

Sirius grinned a bit, "That sounds nice, we should definitely do it. I'll talk to Delia and Professor Oak."

"I'll talk to Steven," Vali grinned back at him, "And if you feel bad about the whole 'ruining' my time home, you could chip in for some of the stuff I need to buy,"

Sirius let out a bark of laughter before pulling her into a hug, "Sounds good, Pup."

Vali hugged him back tightly, "I'm glad we get to spend some time together, Sirius. Even if it isn't for very long."

"Me too," Sirius released her, "Make sure you get some sleep tonight, Pup. You're a growing girl after all and a pokemon trainer at that,"

"I will," Vali rolled her eyes, "Now go talk Delia into coming with us to Celadon,"

Sirius left without any more prompting and Vali resettled on her bed. She picked up her pokenav when it went off, "Hello?"

"Hello, Vali," Rodrick smiled at her, "How are you this evening?"

"I'm doing pretty good tonight, Rodrick," Vali smiled lightly as Vulpix pulled himself onto her bed, "Just trying to strategize for my last Gym battle and plan a trip to Celadon with Padfoot, Delia, Steven, Ash, and Gary,"

"Sounds like fun," Rodrick commented as he shifted his gaze to the right and Vali heard the clacking of keyboard keys, "Have there been any problems since we last talked? Any nightmares? Any problems being on the ferry?"

Vali shook her head, "Not really, no. I think I'll be fine on that front until there's a storm or a Gyarados attack."

"That's good. Empress?" Rodrick asked glancing towards her.

"She was a bit clingy, but eventually relaxed enough to play a bit," Vali rubbed between Vulpix's ears, "So long as there isn't anything serious, I think Empress will be completely fine eventually,"

"We can only hope," Rodrick smiled lightly, "Is there anything you wanted to talk about?"

"Nothing I can think of," Vulpix leaned into her with a low sigh.

"Next time then, I'll call again in a few days," Rodrick told her, "If you need anything, do not hesitate to call,"

"I know. Thank you for this, Rodrick. It's really been helping me," Vali shifted her pokenav around as Vulpix rolled over and crushed her arm underneath him.

"I'm glad to hear it," Rodrick flashed her a smile, "See you in a few days, Vali,"

"See you then," Vali ended the call and dropped her pokenav before picking up Vulpix, "Rolling onto my arm?" Vulpix barked at her as his tail wagged and she rolled her eyes, "No extra cuddles tonight,"

Vulpix gave her a wounded look that made Vali giggle and hug him to her chest.

* * *

With Elrond's help, Vali was able to keep Ash and Gary from running off to explore the department store. Ash pouted at her, "Vali, why can't we explore?"

"Because you'll get lost," Vali led the way into one of the many elevators dotting the Celadon department store, "This place is like a maze especially when you go into the stores. I don't want to have to get Elrond or Vulpix to track you down," She hit the floor number they needed to go to, "Besides once I get my TMs, I'll take you to get something for your pokemon,"

"Really?" Ash grinned while Gary huffed softly.

Professor Oak had taken her advice and Gary was now the owner of a Bellsprout. The boy while happy at getting a pokemon complained that Bellsprout were lame. Vali planned on taking him to meet Erika while they were there since the Gym Leader would be able to prove the boy wrong. It would also give both boys something to focus on and allow her some time to relax without having to deal with either boy trying to run off. She focused on Gary as he asked, "Where did Steven go, anyway?"

"He needed to go check some things out," Vali answered with a light smile, "He'll join us soon enough and bringing a friend of his along as well,"

Steven was meeting with Ryner about something he hadn't been too clear on. She wasn't able to question him too much since they'd needed to leave pretty soon and then he'd had to go if he wanted to meet Ryner on time. Ash looked at her curiously, "Do you know his friend?"

"Yes, Ryner is a nice guy alongside his partner Stella, a Kirlia," Vali led them off the elevator when it dinged and over to where the store selling TMs was, "I met them during my time in Vermilion,"

"What are those?" Ash asked as he gestured to the TM cases on display.

Vali looked at the display and eyed the sleek looking cases, "They're TM cases. They're what we use to keep our TMs from being damaged and give them knowledge of the TMs to our pokemon," She led the boys past the case, "Those must be the latest models."

"Do you have one like that?" Gary asked eyeing the cases curiously.

"No. Mine works just fine," Vali led them to the TMs, "These are the TMs currently on sale, they have a booklet that lists what TMs they're selling and which ones you'd have to order,"

Vali showed them the rather thick and clunky catalog that seemed to get bigger each time she visited this store. Ash looked at it with wide eyes, "Why is it so big?"

"They're continually making new TMs," Vali answered as she opened the catalog and began to flick through it, "The Celadon Department Store prides itself on having the latest of everything available to the public,"

Vali found that all the TMs she needed were being sold and quickly began looking for them. She picked up Hyper Beam, Arial Ace, Solar Beam, Grass Knot, Wilde Charge, and Will-o-Wisp. She also picked up Thunder Fang since it was on sale. After making sure she had all but Grass Knot as permanent TMs, she bought them while inwardly wincing at the fact she'd drained her savings to only two thousand poke. She led the boys over to the shop selling pokemon apparel as Gary asked, "Vali, why did you grimace at the counter?"

"Because I just spent a lot of money," Vali told the boy with a low sigh, "Trainers don't exactly make a lot of money until they're facing high level opponents. You've got to be frugal since having a nice nest egg set up for a rainy day will save you a lot of trouble,"

"Does that mean we're not going to be able to get anything?" Ash asked with a small frown, "I don't want to make you broke, Vali,"

"You're not wasting my money, Ash, especially since Padfoot is paying for it," Vali grinned at him, "Just don't go too expensive regardless,"

With that, Vali let the two boys go off with Elrond and Pippin keeping an eye on the two.

* * *

"What are they doing?" Steven asked as he walked up with Ryner.

Vali was currently using Balto as a backrest while fiddling around with her plans on how to beat Giovanni. She looked across the outside battlefield of the Celadon Gym that was still technically being constructed at where Erika was speaking with the two boys currently under her charge. At the current moment, Ash was hugging the front right leg belonging to Erika's beast of a Venusaur chattering excitedly to the gentle giant. Erika was standing with Gary and a pair of Bellsprout talking to the brown haired boy. Looking back at Steven, she said, "I assume Erika is telling Gary about the benefits of having a Bellsprout while Ash is trying to get Venusaur to fall in love with him," Steven snorted softly at that last comment and Vali tossed him a grin before focusing on Ryner, "Hey, Ryner. How are you?"

"Not bad," Ryner sat down near her with Steven and Stella following after him looking at the man with fond exasperation, "You?"

"Not bad," Vali parroted back before saying, "I'm pretty excited given that we only need one more badge to enter the League,"

Ryner nodded with a soft yawn, "That's good, I saw your last Gym battle thanks to Steven and you did really good. How's Smaug?"

"Trying to push himself, but he's recovering well," Vali fiddled with Smaug's pokeball feeling it warm beneath her fingers, "It'll be a little bit before he's flying like before, but I'm fine with that," She looked at him in curiosity, "What brings you to Kanto, Ryner?"

"Steven's paperwork and the fact I'm the poor guy overseeing our joint work with Cinnabar's fossil research lab," Ryner let out a groan as Stella patted his head a bit roughly, "Stella!"

 _"Don't be such a downer,"_ Stella chirped at Ryner, " _You got promoted after all,"_

"Promoted?" Vali looked at Steven, "Does that mean you two won't be working together now?"

"Not at all, Ryner will still be working under me," Steven smiled lightly, "I am officially in charge of the project. Once we finish our Gym run, I'll be overseeing some fossil digs in Mount Moon while Ryner keeps things at the lab stable,"

"That's great, Steven," Vali grinned at him, "You'll definitely do a good job and probably have a blast, but don't forget to train your pokemon,"

"I won't," Steven's lips pulled into a smirk, "Especially since I plan on beating Lance during our next battle,"

* * *

Since she was in town, Vali decided to drop by on Professor Oak's next lecture which was on the Horsea-line. She was a little surprised to find Lance in Pallet Town's theater, but felt glad he'd decided to take her advice. Lance grinned at her and patted the seat next to him. She walked over and sat down, "Hey, Lance."

"Vali," Lance grinned at her, "I didn't know you were in town,"

"Steven and I got back to Pallet a few days ago," Vali explained as she took out a notebook and set up her pokenav to record the lecture, "I've mostly been spending time with my family. You?"

"Got in this morning and Professor Oak offered me a spot in the lecture," Lance patted one of the pokeballs at his waist, "I recently got a Horsea, so thought it would probably be a good idea,"

Vali nodded as she took out a pencil, "Professor Oak gives away packets of information on the pokemon he discusses after his lecture is over. So what's your Horsea like?"

"She's a cute little thing," Lance grinned as he talked about his latest capture.

They stopped talking once Professor Oak began and Vali started her recording. The lecture was pretty interesting and made her consider getting a Horsea at some point since they ended up becoming powerful pokemon once fully evolved. The lecture last for four hours with two fifteen minute breaks and a solid thirty for questions at the end of it. Once the lecture was over, she led Lance to Professor Oak, "Professor."

"Vali, did you enjoy the lecture?" Professor Oak asked as he held out an information packet.

Vali took it as she nodded, "It was really interesting. I didn't know that Kingdra shed their scales monthly during the first five years after evolution or that they tended to gravitate to the bottom of the ocean to strengthen their scales through pressure."

"It was a really interesting lecture, Professor," Lance added as he took an information packet from the man, "I've really learned a lot today and will definitely use it to help my Horsea become great,"

"I'm glad to hear it, Lance," Professor Oak smiled lightly, "If you want, I can give you more information later on,"

"That would be amazing," Lance grinned as he shook the Professor's hand, "And maybe some tips as well, I'm trying to become the champion of both Kanto and Johto,"

"So I've heard from Vali," Professor Oak said causing Lance to look at Vali with a raised eyebrow.

Vali shrugged lightly, "I like talking about my friends, Lance."

Lance's lips pulled into a wide grin, "Good things?"

"Mhmm," Vali put the packet of information she'd been given into her messenger bag, "Are you hungry? It's about lunch time,"

* * *

Vali led Lance to her house in Pallet Town with the red haired dragon-type trainer looking around the small town in interest. She glanced at him as he asked, "So there are basically no real bans on what pokemon you can have out?"

"Outside of species like Muk or are too aggressive, not really," Vali patted Balto's side, "Granted it'd be best to keep your Charizard in it's pokeball if you're anywhere near the lab or Corral, Professor Oak's will likely tear it to shreds unless his trainer introduces them,"

"I'll keep that in mind," Lance looked at the houses they past, "You really grew up here?"

"Since I was 8 years old," Vali smiled lightly, "I prefer it to the place we were before. We have pokemon here after all,"

Lance shook his head with an expression of disbelief on his face, "I still can't believe a place without pokemon exists. It seems like a very dreary place."

"Yeah," Vali opened the gate, "Here it is, my home here in Pallet Town. The Ketchum-Black-Potter residence,"

The front door burst open as they walked through the gate and Ash rushed towards her, "Vali!"

"Ash?" Vali barely managed to keep from falling over when Ash slammed into her, "We just saw each other this mor-"

"Come back here, you little brat!" Sirius' roar of fury cut her off as he charged out of the house looking ready to breath fire.

Given the copious amounts of paint and feathers covering the man, Vali guessed that Ash had managed to finally prank Sirius. She didn't know what exactly to do, but was saved from trying to decide when Sirius abruptly froze mid-step with a blue psychic aura formed around him. Delia came out of the house, "Sirius! Do not go chasing after Ash just because he managed to prank you for once. You deserved it for all the pranks you've pulled on him."

Ash grinned as he moved out from behind her and pointed at Sirius, "Ha! I beat you, Dog-Man."

"And you!" Delia rounded on Ash earning a yelp while Vali backed away from the doomed boy feeling very glad that Delia's impressive glare wasn't pointed at her, "You know the rules, Young Man. No pranks like that inside the house," Ash ducked his head, "Now apologize to each other,"

"Sorry," Was muttered by the two semi-cowering males.

"Sirius, when Metagross releases you, you're going to go hose off. I will not have you make even more of a mess," Delia ordered earning a slight nod from Sirius, "Ash, you will be cleaning up your mess. When Sirius comes in, you will apologize properly,"

"Yes, Mom," Ash's expression was sullen.

"Now, off you two go," Delia clapped her hands and Sirius was released.

Sirius stumbled forward and fell flat on his face after being granted the ability to move again. Ash snickered before darting around the prone form of her god-father to do as his mother bid. Sirius pushed himself up with a low growl and headed around the house to get the hose. Vali giggled softly as Lance asked, "Does that happen every day?"

"Only when my children and Sirius are together, Ash seems to always find a reason to try and prank someone," Delia smiled as she looked at Lance, "And you are?"

"This is Lance, Delia," Vali walked towards the brown haired woman with a grin on her face.

"The dragon tamer, right?" Delia asked earning a nod from Vali, "I take it you'll be joining us for lunch?"

"If it won't be too much trouble, Ma'am," Lance held out his hand to Delia and kissed her knuckles when she took it, "Lance Blackthorn of the Blackthorn City Dragon-Tamers in Johto,"

"Delia Ketchum soon to be Black," Delia giggled softly as she took her hand back, "It's no trouble at all. Vali knows how I love to feed people and any friend of my children is always welcome in our home. Please call me Delia,"

"Of course," Lance grinned lightly.

"Now," Delia looked at Vali, "Why don't you take Lance to go meet Steven and get his pokemon settled with everyone else? I'm sure they would love a chance to rest in the sunlight and meet up with some friends,"

"Sure thing. Do you need help in the kitchen?" Vali asked Delia curiously.

"Not at all, Metagross is quite willing to assist with preparations," Delia waved her off, "Now off you go,"

Vali kissed Delia's cheek and led Lance around the back of the house, "This way, Lance. We even have a small pond for water-types."

Lance followed her after nodding to Delia, "So what's your relationship with Delia? She calls you one of her children, but you two don't really look alike."

"Delia took Sirius and I in after we pretty much crash-landed in Kanto," Vali explained as Balto darted past her, "Delia's become like a mother figure to me and Ash one of my little brothers,"

"I see," Lance muttered with a slight frown, "Where are your birth parents?"

"Dead," Vali answered in a slightly soft voice, "I never really got to know them," She looked at Lance already seeing the coming apology and hated it, "Don't say anything, okay? I don't need anyone apologizing to me least of all you. It isn't something I really broadcast since Delia and Sirius are my parents in every way that matters,"

"Vali," Steven called from up ahead, "I see you're bac-" He stopped talking when he saw Lance, "Oh, Lance. You're here,"

"I'm going to go check on my Houndour egg," Vali told Steven, "He's joining us for lunch,"

"I'll get him settled," Steven said after eyeing her.

Vali nodded to him and headed inside the house.

* * *

"Well shit, she's angry at me," Lance commented as Vali disappeared into the house.

Steven looked at the dragon-tamer with a small frown, "What exactly did you do to make her angry?"

"Asked about her relationship to Delia," Lance answered with a sheepish expression, "Found out she'd lost her birth parents and she stopped me from apologizing for bringing it up,"

"She isn't mad at you," Steven shook his head, "She's just annoyed that someone that's somewhat close to her was going to apologize for bringing it up," Lance looked at him in confusion, "Vali won't get mad at you for that especially when you didn't know. It'll take more than that to get her mad," He turned back to the backyard, "Let's get your pokemon settled, Vali will probably be less annoyed if you ask her to groom or take pictures of them,"

"Sure, sure," Lance nodded his head as he began releasing his pokemon, "Though why grooming? I get pictures, but not grooming,"

Steven chuckled softly, "Vali loves grooming pokemon because it both makes them feel good and she gets to know them better. It's her way of connecting with them on a diffrent level than usual," Vali had won over Skarmory after a thorough grooming session which was saying something since the steel-type was prickly with just about everyone save for him, "It also gets the pokemon relaxed which is helpful in a new setting and she finds it calming."

* * *

When Lance asked Vali to groom his pokemon after she'd come back outside, the fire-type master-in-training knew that Steven had said something to the dragon-tamer, but couldn't feel annoyed with him over it. She groomed the pokemon after lunch and showed an increasingly interested Lance what to do with his pokemon when they needed to be groom. She had each of the red head's pokemon practically eating out of the palm of her hand. By the end, Lance had commented that he had never seen his pokemon so relaxed and content which pleased her to no end. Once all the pokemon had been groomed with Vali guiding Ash once the boy had finished cleaning up his mess, she took a picture of everyone together and multiple other shots while promising to make copies if anyone wanted a specific picture.

Lance headed to the trainer dorms set up by Professor Oak's lab after dinner. They were regularly used by traveling trainers either staying for one of Professor Oak's lectures or just passing through. Since Pallet Town wasn't big enough nor popular enough to warrant a pokemon center, Professor Oak had the League set up a trainer dorm for those trainers that needed to stop on their way to Viridian or the nearby port. If Delia hadn't been willing to allow it, Steven would have been staying there much like Lance. Lance wasn't staying mostly because he didn't want to impose and the fact there wasn't any training facilities. There was also the fact Smaug and his Charizard didn't exactly like each other, no one wanted to wake up to either of the draconian fire-types attempting to duke it out.

* * *

Lance looked at the paper Vali was rewriting and whistled, "Already working on your first research paper?"

"Blame Professor Oak," Vali put down her pen and grabbed her old paper to look at what she'd written and what Professor Oak had said was wrong with it, "Though given the amount of red ink drowning my first draft, I'm betting he regrets his decision just a bit,"

"Is this on a fossil pokemon?" Lance asked as he picked up the first page of her first draft.

Vali nodded as she put down the paper and went back to her writing, "Mhmm. I documented and collected all the needed data myself. Professor Oak sent me a bunch of extra information and I'm currently trying to cobble it all together into a proper research paper," She jerked a thumb towards where Steven and Claydol where helping Elrond increase his psychic abilities, "Which is a lot less fun than it sounds especially since Professor Oak is a perfectionist."

Lance plopped down beside her, "You can't really blame him though since your name is going to be attached to his thanks to him being your sponsoring Professor."

"I know, but frustration doesn't really care about that," Vali set down her pen again and rubbed at her hand, "Sometimes, I wished that he would let me write this on a computer, but no, the first few drafts have to be hand-written," She grabbed her lemonade, "Though my handwriting is a lot better than before," She noticed Lance's curious look and grinned a bit, "I had worse than Pidgey-scratch for writing. It was a miracle that anyone could read it. Delia and Professor Oak forced me to correct it, so now everyone can read my writing without wondering if I'm trying to be an abstract artist or a doctor," She looked at him, "So what brings you this way?"

"Professor Oak is fixing up Lucio," Lance answered with a small grimace, "You weren't kidding about his Charizard being a monster. He kicked Lucio's ass within the first three minutes and played with him for a further six. Lucio's going to be feeling it for weeks,"

"But you get why I recommended getting some tips from Professor Oak?" Vali asked as she got her things packed up since taking a break would do some good.

Lance nodded with a grin, "Hell yeah. Professor Oak is awesome if he can raise that beast of a Charizard and a Dragonite while still having their loyalty even when he isn't actually battling anymore. I really want to meet his Dragonite."

"You probably will since she always likes dropping into see me when I'm around the Corral," Vali put her things away before leaning back against the tree she'd chosen to sit against, "She's awesome,"

"I'll bet," Lance grin widened, "Dragonite are always awesome," He looked at where Smaug was laying, "How is he doing?"

"Better today, I'm lucky Professor Oak talked to his Charizard about not playing with Smaug," Vali reached into her bag and pulled out an oran berry granola bar, "He's really motivated to get back into the sky," She looked out at her and Steven's training pokemon, "How long will you be staying in Pallet Town?"

"A few more days than I'm headed back to Blackthorn until it's time to sign up for the Conference," Lance answered as he settled rather lazily against one of the boulders sitting around the edge of the field they were currently sitting in, "Gotta train hard if I'm going to win and even harder to beat the Elite not to mention the Champion. I'm still trying to figure out how I'll beat Lorelei,"

"You'll figure it out," Vali took a bite of her granola bar.

"You'll have to figure out how to beat Giovanni," Lance commented with a slight chuckle, "How's that going for you?"

Vali waved her unoccupied hand, "Kind of good, but not really, I have some plans cobbled together, but it's difficult for me to figure out what exactly to do. I know I'm going to be using Balto, Celina, and Elrond. I'm not sure about Smaug right now since he needs to recover and I don't want to rush him into a battle against Giovanni's ground-types. It leaves me with two open spots that I'm not sure what to do with."

Save for not using Empress or Pippin since neither of them would do well, Vali couldn't gamble with this last gym battle and those two would likely get seriously hurt. Lance nodded as he looked over the pokemon training, "I assume you're keeping Empress out of it?"

"And Pippin since gambling with this gym battle would not only see us lose, but also some serious injuries that I don't want either of them to deal with," Vali looked at Lance curiously, "What happened in your last gym battle?"

"Giovanni used a Rhydon first then a Nidoking followed by a Dugtrio and a Nidoqueen," Lance answered as Vulpix wandered over to lay down in Vali's lap, "He used a Graveler as his last pokemon,"

Vali frowned a bit, "But I thought he usually used a Persian."

"From what I've found out, he tends to switch it around," Lance reached out and rubbed between Vulpix's ears earning a pleased coo from the vulpine pokemon, "But that's the same with most of the gym leaders,"

"True," Vali would need to do a lot of research then, "I've got a lot of work ahead of me,"

"How about you take a break from planning and have a battle with me?" Lance gave her a challenging grin, "One on one,"

Vali thought about it before nodding deciding it would definitely be a good way to clear her mind and perhaps knock everything into perspective, "Sure, sure. I'll use Balto."

"I'll use one of my Dragonair," Lance replied as he stood up.

Vali gently pushed Vulpix off her lap before standing. Gobbling up her snack, she downed it with the last of her lemonade before calling out, "Balto!" Balto rushed over to her from where he'd been watching over Pippin sparring with Arwen and gave her a curious look, "Want to battle with me?" Balto nodded with a bark and wag of his tail, "Glad to hear it," She looked at Steven, "Steven, mind refereeing?"

Steven shook his head, "Not at all, we should move to the battleground before you two start."

Vali returned her pokemon save for Balto and pulled herself onto his back. Lance called out his Dragonite while Steven got onto Metagross' back after recalling all his other pokemon. She grinned at the two, "Last one to the battleground is a rotten egg!"

With that, Vali nudged Balto's side and the Arcanine took off with a howl as the two males stared at her in shock before determination set in. The two quickly followed after her with the fire-type master-in-training nudging Balto's sides in a way that told him to go faster. If one were looking at the forested area of the Oak Corral, they'd see three blurs of color racing towards the lab.

* * *

Lance won the race if only because he just needed to dodge flying-types. Balto needed to dodge around various ground bound objects and other pokemon. Steven managed to arrive just before Vali thanks to the forest opening up to the large field nearest to the lab allowing her to speed up quite a bit. Despite being the loser, Vali had enjoyed the race both because of the adrenaline pumping through her veins and the fact she'd gotten to experience it with Balto. Balto was just glad for the chance to run and get a proper warm up before battling. After clearing it with Professor Oak, they took to the battlefield.

Lance released his Dragonair the moment Steven gave the word and Vali's breath caught a bit in her throat. A great serpentine form burst into life from the pokeball that the pokemon had been kept within. Long and sinuous, the dragon-type coiled through the air radiating a sense of grace and gentle mystical power. Beautiful cyan blue scales glittered as the softer cloudy white scales of it's underside gleamed in the sunlight mimicking the heavens above them perfectly. Oval eyes the color of amethysts peered around the beautiful creature as it peered at the world from behind a rounded snout. A small white horn adorned its forehead alongside the small stylized wings at each side of its head. The wings were the same brilliant white as its scaled underbelly and curved into a swirl at the base. At its neck, a dark navy blue orb gleamed in the sunlight was matched by a small pair coiled around its tail. Releasing a gentle cry as if to greet the world, the Dragonair boasted a gentle mythical aura.

A spirit of the sky and seas made flesh indeed Vali's mind commented as it always did when exposed to the beautiful pokemon that always managed to leave her breathless. She focused as Balto stepped onto the battlefield and Steven announced, "If both trainers are ready, you may begin."

"Ladies first," Lance offered earning a grin.

"Thanks, Balto," Balto flicked his tail, "Double Team and Leer. Hit and run, we need to see just what this one can do,"

Balto barked and began copying himself. Dragonair shuddered visibly as Balto leered at it. Lance called out, "Dragonair, Thunder Mist."

Vali was left wondering what that was for all of five seconds before Dragonair began to release icy blue tinted mist from its mouth and the gems on it's body began to spark with electricity. A Thunder Wave and Mist combination. The electricity of the Thunder Wave would be boosted as it traveled through the mist. Smart if a bit diffrent from the full on attack she'd been expecting from Lance based on his battle against Steven back in the tournament. Balto used Heat Wave without any prompting from her which rendered the Mist useless leaving him only needing to deal with the Thunder Wave. A grunt left Balto as the attack hit, but he didn't let it stop him. Balto slammed into Dragonair with a Flame Wheel attack followed by Bite. Dragonair let out a low screech before slamming an Aqua Tail into Balto's side forcing him to release his hold. Which meant she'd need to work on that with him, she realized as Balto quickly disappeared back into the sea of clones he'd formed.

Vali called out, "Balto, Sunny Day followed by Heat Wave."

"Dragonair, Rain Dance!" Lance retorted with a grin.

The two weather based attacks cancelled each other out in a minor explosion which sucked, but Balto's Heat Wave still did damage to Dragonair which made up for it somewhat. Dragonair replied with Icy Wind which earned a irritated growl from Balto who used Flame Wheel to get rid of the ice melting into his fur. The water diminished the strength of his attack, but the Arcanine didn't seem to care since he wasn't wet anymore. Balto followed up with Fire Fang earning a screech of pain as the bite burned through Dragonair's thick scales. Dragonair coated itself in Aqua Jet causing Balto to release with a wet cough as water unexpectedly filled his mouth. Dragonair aimed an Ice Beam at the wet dog that Balto dodged as best he could and countered with Flamethrower. The two attacks met and exploded against each other filling the battlefield with steam.

As they waited for the cloud of steam to clear away, the sounds of battle continued within it. Balto howling and Dragonair screeching followed by crashing sounds. When it finally cleared away, Balto was using Reversal on Dragonair with both pokemon looking a bit worse for wear. Dragonair slammed into the ground harshly sending up small clouds of dust. Dragonair used Dragon Pulse sending Balto skidding and stumbling back. When the attack faded away, the two pokemon stood panting and bleeding from various marks on their bodies. Balto took a step forward spitting out Toxic at Dragonair who moved aside with a hiss of displeasure. Vali called out, "Balto, Flare Blitz."

"Dragonair, Dragon Rush!" Lance shouted.

The two pokemon rushed at each other coated with their respective elemental attacks. The two met in the middle with a loud boom followed by a shock-wave that sent everyone skidding back. Vali belatedly pulled up her scarf as dust went flying. She sent out Celina as the dust stopped flying around and had her clear everything away with Wing Attack. Once the dust was cleared, the two battling pokemon were revealed to be unconscious. Without waiting for Steven's call, the two trainers returned their pokemon and headed inside to get them checked out.

Professor Oak shooed them out after taking their pokeballs. Vali spoke as they left the lab, "That was..."

"Awesome," Lance grinned at her, "Thanks for the battle, Vali,"

"Thank you too," Vali replied as her lips pulled into a bright grin, "It was a lot of fun,"

"I'm definitely making you one of my Elite Four when I'm a champion," Lance told her with a laugh, "You're going to be super strong once you've got more time to train under your belt,"

"I wasn't expecting that first move," Vali told Lance, "From your battle with Steven and the ones on your trainer page, I was expecting a full out assault from the start,"

"I like to change it up sometimes," Lance shrugged as they headed for where Steven was waiting, "A champion has to have a lot of diffrent tricks up their sleeves in order to keep their position after all,"

"How are Balto and Dragonair?" Steven asked when they reached him.

"Professor Oak is keeping them overnight and probably until tomorrow night just to be safe," Vali answered feeling a bit bad that Balto had gotten hurt, "But no permanent injuries thankfully,"

"Good," Steven smiled a bit, "Nice battle you two,"

"Thanks," Lance grinned at him as Vali nodded, "Maybe we should battle while I'm here,"

Steven shook his head, "No, I'd prefer to wait until the conference, so I can beat you in front of a crowd."

"We'll have to see about that since I plan to win the conference," Lance headed over to where his Dragonite was humoring Empress' attempts to headbutt him.

* * *

Ash pouted at Vali once she finished talking about the battle, "That's no fair, why did you battle without us around?"

"Because we could battle and waiting didn't seem like any fun besides I didn't want to interrupt your time with Sirius," Vali shrugged as she took a roll from the basket on the table, "You had fun today, right?"

"Yeah," Ash grinned lightly, "It was a lot of fun. Siri took Gary and I to the cliffs,"

"Cliffs?" Steven asked looking up from his dinner.

"The foot hills leading up to Mount Hideaway," Sirius answered picking up his glass of soda, "About five miles before they begin, you'll find this set of cliffs. If you follow them at the base, you'll find these caves that a lot of flying-type pokemon use as nest sights. Professor Oak's Dragonite uses them,"

"Really?" Steven looked at Vali.

Vali nodded with a slight grin, "It's an awesome place. Really calm and one of the best places to watch flying-types in their natural habitat, I remember one year there was a group of Altaria."

"And a small flock of Swellow," Delia added as she grabbed the bowl of salad set up next to the rolls, "We had a lot of flying-types from Hoenn migrating around that area. Professor Oak usually organizes something with the local school to take a small class up there,"

"It's usually the graduating class though it'll be another month and a half before something like that happens," Vali took a drink from her oran berry smoothie, "If you want, I could show you. The pokemon are usually calm thanks to Dragonite nesting there,"

"I'd like to," Steven smiled lightly, "Do you want to go tomorrow?"

"Let's wait until Balto's healed up," Vali told him, "While I can ride Celina, I've never gone up there without Balto,"

* * *

Once Balto was healed up and had a day to rest, Vali took Steven to the cliffs. He walked beside Vali as they ventured through the forest. There was no visible path on the ground, Vali didn't seem to need one. A gentle breeze whistled through the air and the sounds of pokemon going about their day was all that could be heard. He could see why Vali had called it a calm place, "This place is really peaceful."

"It is. It's why a lot of low level pokemon tend to live here," Vali stopped to let a small group of Rattata race past, "I used to come out here with just Balto beside me when I couldn't go to the lab and needed some form of peace. We spent hours just wandering around together,"

Steven smiled softly able to see the two walking along this path. In the corner of his eye, he could see flashes of the two together playing around and exploring this peaceful place. He asked, "You knew even back then that he was yours, didn't you?"

Vali nodded after a moment of thought, "Yeah, I guess I did," She gained a contemplative look on her face, "He was the first pokemon outside of Professor Oak's Alakazam that I met. He was a real sweetheart and stayed with me the entire time I was awake. Alakazam told me it was because he felt the need to be beside me in such a strange place. So I wouldn't be alone, he kept me from being lonely," She placed a hand on Balto's pokeball, "I don't think I'll ever be able to imagine being without him now."

Steven touched the pokeball containing Metagross understanding just what Vali was talking about. He felt the same about his partner and knew it would crush him if they lost one another. Metagross radiated a sense of warm contentment and agreement showing they were listening in. Vali paused by a section of trees and stopped him from moving forward, "Vali?"

"This is it," Vali turned her head to grin at him, "Don't speak just feel,"

With that, Vali walked into the area ahead of them and Steven followed after her. When the sunlight stopped blinding him, he felt his breath hitch and a sense of peace roll through his body. A cliff face stood not even ten feet away from them with a waterfall draining into a nearby river. Dotting the surface of the weather worn stone face of the cliff, a serious of caves cut burrowed into the pale grey and green stone. Bird-types of many kids save for Spearow flew in and out of the caves, he could pick out a pair of Altaria and a trio of Swellow singing together by the waterfall.

Steven looked at Vali when she tugged on his hand, "What are you doing?"

"Taking you to where I usually sit," Vali answered tugging him to follow her.

Steven followed her as he said, "This place, I feel a sense of peace."

"It's unbelievable sometimes," Vali told him in a soft voice as she led them towards a small cluster of trees that, "Just how easy it is to lose track of time just enjoying that feeling when everything feels like it's crashing down around you,"

Vali showed him the bench that was set up underneath one of the trees before she dropped her bag and settled down on it. Steven followed her example slowly settling down as she took out Balto's pokeball and released him. Balto made no sounds as he was released merely looked around and seemed to smile as he laid down at Vali's side. Vali laid her hand on his side and closed her eyes. He slowly released Metagross and did the same. Any urge that he had to explore those caves disappeared. Opening his eyes, he asked, "This is your place, isn't it?"

Vali nodded without opening her eyes, "The area most people use it on the other side of the river and most of the flying-types avoid that area now."

"Thank you for showing this to me," Steven told her unable to say anything else.

Vali opened her eyes and flashed him a warm smile, "Just don't show people this spot and we'll be even."


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997: Okay so this chapter fought me a lot. It was part of the reason it took so long to write, but the biggest reason came from the fact I'm not getting as much time to write. I've been picking up shifts at work and looking for a second job since my current income isn't doing it what with a recent increase in bills not to mention other stuff. Adulting sucks, guys. Just remember once a month updates, I don't have a specific day to update.**

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Words: 17,600

* * *

Chapter 18

* * *

Vali packed up her bag after ensuring that her Houndour egg was secure. They were leaving in an hour for Viridian City and she was just doing some last minute packing mostly clothes that had been washed. Ash sat on the floor with Vulpix in his lap. While he wasn't exactly happy about her leaving so soon, he understood and looked forward to how soon she'd be back again since she planned on working with her pokemon in the Corral while training for the Conference unless something came up. She glanced at Ash as he asked for clarification, "So you'll just be in Viridian?"

"Yup. If you really wanted to see me, I could easily fly back using Celina or race back on Balto," Vali placed her folded clothes into her bag, "Just call me, I won't be able to rush back every day," She grinned slightly while pointing out, "And Delia could take you along with her to Viridian when she goes shopping,"

Ash perked up, "Oh, Yeah! Mom goes every week."

"Though you'll have to behave and not complain if she can't bring you along," Vali warned him despite knowing Ash could be patient sometimes.

Ash nodded eagerly, "I get it. Can you help me train Pidgey if we come see you?"

"I don't see why not, but remember that Celina might not be too willing soon enough," Vali packed away her extra gloves and scarf, "Mating season is approaching after all,"

While trained pokemon usually didn't join in during the mating seasons of their species, they still had a lot of hormones running through their bodies that made them short tempered and volatile. The only time this didn't happen was if they already had eggs or were raising their young. With Pidgey, Celina might tolerate the younger female enough to help train her. On the other hand, Celina might actually try to go after Pidgey in an attempt to keep any viable males from choosing the younger female. Keeping the two apart during this time would be for the best even if Celina didn't feel like joining in, Vali had already spoken with Delia and Professor Oak to make arrangements for the month and a half period of time most Kantonian flying-types had their mating season.

Ash made a face, "Oh, right."

Vali snickered a bit as she zipped up her backpack after checking to make sure everything was inside of it, "Trust me, you'll be glad to know when the various mating seasons are once you've got pokemon of your own that are old enough to participate in them. Thankfully, Pidgey don't often join in on Mating season until their three years old."

"Is Celina going to participate?" Ash asked looking a bit green.

Vali shrugged lightly, "Not too sure, she hasn't really made any indication that she'd like to participate, but I'll ask her in two weeks to see if she's going to," She pulled on her bag, "Well let's go to the Lab, I need to see who's coming with me."

Vulpix got off of Ash's lap and trotted over to her. Vali bent down to scratch behind his ears before leaving her room with Ash and Vulpix following her. Delia stuck her head out of the kitchen, "Heading to the lab?"

"Yeah. I need to go check on everyone and make sure whoever's going with me is listed on my team," Vali smelt chocolate chip cookies, "Cookies?"

"They'll be done by the time you're ready to leave," Delia answered with a light grin, "So come see me before you go,"

"Will do," Vali couldn't wait since Delia's cookies were awesome, "Do you need me to pass any messages along to Professor Oak?"

"Not at all," Delia shook her head, "Though I'm surprised that I haven't seen Steven since this morning,"

"He's talking to Ryner. Tell him where we've gone if he comes out of the guest room before we're back, please," Vali said earning a nod, "See you in a few,"

* * *

Vali ended up bringing along Balto, Elrond, Celina, Arwen, Pele, and Terra. Smaug still needed to strengthen his wings before she was comfortable letting him battle. The only reason she was bringing Terra along was for one on one training and to just spend time with the Larvitar. After everything was said and done with her gym battles, she'd spend some personal time with each of her pokemon making sure they understood that despite not having much time for everyone at once, she still cared about them. She was also doing this to ensure that Terra got some battle experience and to help her figure out what kind of battle style would fit the Larvitar. It would likely be the same thing she'd have to do with Pele by making her into a tank, but that was something to do once Terra was a Tyranitar. As a Larvitar, Terra could take hits, but no where near close to what she'd need to be able to deal with in order to be considered a tank.

After returning to the Ketchum-Black-Potter residence, Delia had Steven and Vali sit down for one last lunch together before the duo were to set off on the last leg of the Kanto Gym Circuit. The lunch was delicious and the conversations shared were light-hearted. Once they were all finished eating and the two trainers had packed away the bags of cookies Delia had gifted them with, the two said their goodbyes before leaving. For the walk to the edge of town, Ash joined them with Pidgey sitting on his shoulder. At the edge of town, she hugged Ash and stroked Pidgey's head, "I'll probably see you at some point soon, so I'll just say to be good for Delia. Pidgey, watch over him. Ash, make sure to check on Gary and Bellsprout."

"I will," Ash hugged her back, "Be safe,"

"I have my pokemon and Steven with me. I'll be fine," Vali released him and Vulpix nuzzled the boy causing Ash to smile, "See you,"

"See you," Ash replied with Pidgey chirping.

Balto nudged Ash letting out a low bark. Ash scratched behind Balto's ear murmuring a small goodbye. After that, they set off waving to Ash behind them. At the entrance to route 1, Vali paused with Balto and took a deep breath feeling a sense of nostalgia fall over her. She dug her fingers into Balto's mane, "Feels like just yesterday we set out together with Smaug to start our journey, huh?" Balto smiled a doggy smile and leaned into her, "We've grown a lot over the months since then. Adding to our family and getting stronger, we've been through a lot both good and bad."

"No regrets?" Steven asked looking at her in amusement.

"None," Vali's lips pulled into a light smile, "I'll never regret leaving Pallet Town even if things suck a lot sometimes," She looked forward as excitement coiled in her stomach, "Let's get going though, we don't have time for me to reminisce all day and I'm really eager to see just how quickly we can pass through this place. Though first things first," She released Terra who looked around curiously, "Terra, you're going to be walking beside me, okay? If you start to feel tired, I'll have Elrond carry you, okay?" Terra nodding with an excited expression on her face, "Well, let's get going,"

Steven let out a soft laugh, "Elrond is going to be annoyed with you."

"He needs to train himself to handle heavy weights and Terra is exactly that," Vali bent down to rub Terra's head, "If he wants to lift something else, I'll probably find a few boulders for him to practice on or have Claydol make some. Training is important after all and we can't become lax especially now,"

* * *

They managed to get most of the way to Viridian City before needing to set up camp for the night. Terra was exhausted by the time they set up camp and went to sleep after eating her dinner. Vali allowed it mostly because Terra had been training her stamina all day and had managed to keep up rather well meaning she definitely deserved a chance to rest. Due to this being route 1, they made sure to have multiple psychic barriers up to ensure the surrounding area wasn't destroyed. Steven looked at the sky in surprise when a hoot sounded, "A Hoothoot?"

"Spring time migration," Vali caught sight of a Noctowl flying overhead with package held in it's claws, "There's also night time deliveries, Noctowl are commonly used at night rather than Pidgeot,"

"I'm surprised I haven't seen many," Steven said as Vali took a drink from her water bottle.

"Not all the delivery companies use them, they're mostly used for short deliveries mostly due to not being strong long-distance flyers when carrying something," Vali capped her water bottle, "Professor Oak and some of the other people in Pallet get nightly deliveries. Mostly Professor Oak, he gets them from the League,"

"Odd," Steven commented as he looked at her from across the fire.

Vali shook her head, "Not really, they're usually packages sent via League channels from various other Professors mostly the Regional ones."

"I guess that makes sense," Steven shook his head lightly, "We should get some rest. We'll reach Viridian by noon if we wake up early,"

"Sounds good," Vali put her water bottle away and got into her sleeping bag while Steven had Blastoise bank the fire, "Night everyone,"

"Night," Steven said as the pokemon gave their own version of goodnight.

Vali settled down with her pokemon cuddling up around her. She closed her eyes with a soft yawn.

* * *

Vali looked around the Viridian city Pokemon Center and noticed that the Nurse Joy manning the front desk was the same one from her first visit to Viridian. Smiling a bit, she brushed her fingers against Eevee's pokeball while walking towards the desk. Eevee's pokeball warmed beneath her fingers, but the fox-like pokemon didn't release himself. Nurse Joy looked up as she reached the front desk, "Welcom-Valkyrie Potter-Black and Steven Stone?!"

"Nurse Joy," Steven greeted her.

"It's nice to see you, Nurse Joy," Vali grinned a bit, "You're looking well,"

"What on earth are you doing in Viridian so soon?" Nurse Joy asked as she got out two trays.

Vali began placing her pokeballs onto the tray after unclipping them, "We've got all our gym badges save for our eighth, so we're here to get it. We'll be staying for a month this time around."

Nurse Joy looked a little surprised, "Really? That's amazing considering this is your first year, Vali," The pink haired woman smiled brightly, "Congratulations," Vali pulled out her pokedex and handed it over as Steven did the same, "I wish you both the best of luck."

"Thank you, Nurse Joy," Steven inclined his head lightly.

"Nurse Joy, I have two extra pokemon who are on my inactive team. One of which you'll definitely recognize," Vali's grin widened at the Nurse Joy's curious look, "He's a lot better now,"

Nurse Joy's expression twisted in confusion than realization as the pink haired nurse gasped, "Really?"

Vali nodded as she placed Eevee and Vulpix's pokeballs down, "Yeah. He's still wary, but less likely to attack people unless threatened."

Eevee tolerated being touched and held by Steven though he preferred being carried by her if it was needed. Any males that he didn't know well usually found themselves on the business end of a Shadow Ball or Swift. Ash and Gary had learned that Eevee would not tolerate being touched by anyone save for Vali, Steven, and Delia rather quickly when Eevee scratched them up a bit. Sirius had ended up with a weak Shadow Ball to the face for startling Eevee a few times. Nurse Joy beamed at that, "Oh, that's wonderful!"

"He does have problems with unknown males," Vali watched Nurse Joy frown, "So long as they don't try to touch or pick him up, everything should be fine,"

"I'll keep that in mind," Nurse Joy picked up the trays and placed them on a trolley that her Chansey took into the back, "Now, how long will you two be staying in Viridian?"

"A month," Steven answered as they got out their pokedexes, "Two rooms please,"

Nurse Joy took their pokedexs and began fiddling with her computer. Vali looked around the pokemon center and noticed that there were more trainers than before, "Things are really starting to speed up around here, huh?"

"A bit, but it won't get really busy for another two to three weeks," Nurse Joy logged in their pokedexes before handing them back and grabbing two keys, "Those rushing through their badge run with be really focused on getting that last badge, it used to be a lot busier before Giovanni took over and set that badge limit," Nurse Joy handed them the keys, "Here you are, your pokemon should be ready to go in about ten to fifteen minutes. I'll page you over the intercom,"

"Thank you, Nurse Joy," Vali took her key as Steven did the same.

They went to their rooms with Steven asking, "Should we go sign up for a spot?"

"That would be a good idea," Vali moved closer to Steven as they passed a few trainers heading back into the lobby of the Pokemon Center, "Just to make sure we get a spot before they fill up, it'll start getting busy before the month is out if Nurse Joy was telling the truth. After that, we could go look around at the various places that cater to pokemon trainers," Steven nodded slowly as they started to walk up the stairs, "I really need to find a good spot to help my pokemon train with those new TMs not to mention spend time with Terra,"

* * *

After taking a nice shower and starting her laundry, Vali headed downstairs to collect her pokemon and get something to eat. Steven joined her a few minutes later and they ate lunch before leaving the Pokemon Center for the Gym. The Viridian City Gym was more grandiose than any of the ones she'd come across and sat elevated above the other buildings via a large platform of earth. It was one of the larger gyms she'd seen with large columns gutting out of the earth on either side of the pathway leading up to the doors. The building was mainly done in a dark brownish orange and outlined in a mixture of grey stones. The doors were made of burnished bronze. She glanced at Steven as he commented, "He's definitely making a bold statement."

"What do you mean?" Vali asked as she eyed the building they were walking into.

"You can tell a lot about the Gyms Leader by how their gym looks," Steven explained as they passed by a pair of columns, "Pewter's Gym Leader chose to have the gym's outside based on stone. It could mean a lot of things, but when I met Flint, I realized that it meant a strong foundation. Everyone's first gym battle always leaves a lasting impression on the challengers and starts the foundation for what kind of battler they'll become,"

Vali admitted it made sense thought that just made her ask, "And this one?"

"He sees himself as a ruler. Someone that won't be toppled easily," Steven answered as he peered at the gym with a look of concentration, "He'll push any challenger that faces him to the brink forcing them to either submit or show their true strength. If he can back it up, it's no wonder why he'll only face the strongest opponents," He smirked a bit which Vali had only ever seen during the video of him facing Lance in that tournament, "This should be fun,"

Clearly someone was excited about challenging Giovanni, Vali looked forward to seeing their battle especially if it would be on the same level as Lance and Steven's battle back during the Vermilion City tournament. She smiled lightly as they walked into the gym and found a receptionist sitting at the front desk. The man looked more than a little bored as he said, "Unless you have seven gym badges, you're not going to be challenging the boss."

"We both have seven gym badges," Vali stated making the man straighten up and looked at them with a raised eyebrow, "We're here to sign up for two gym battles a few weeks in advance,"

"I see," The man turned to his computer, "Names?"

"Steven Stone of Mossdeep City in Hoenn," Steven answered as he showed the man his badge case.

"Valkyrie Potter-Black of Pallet Town," Vali answered taking out her badge case as well.

"Alright and when will you two be wishing to battle?" The receptionist asked once he'd looked over their badges.

"Three weeks from now," Vali replied as she put her badge case away.

The receptionist hummed lightly, "Alright. I have an opening for a 2 pm on a Tuesday three weeks from now and a 3 pm on a Wednesday during the same week."

"I'll take the Tuesday and Steven will take the Wednesday," Vali said glancing at Steven who nodded.

"Alright," The receptionist typed away at his computer, "Should you lose against Boss, you'll have to wait a week before scheduling another Gym Battle,"

* * *

Once they'd secured a spot in 'Buck's Battlezone and Training Facilities', Vali got a training room for her pokemon and set them to work learning how to use their new moves. Elrond was put to work with Grass Knot which was the most important of the three moves he'd be learning. Balto was going to be working on Solar Beam then Arial Ace. Celina would be working on Hyper Beam and Arial Ace. Arwen would be working on Solar Beam with Balto. Pele would be working on learning Protect and Double Team the former would be the most important. Once they were hard at work, she led Terra over to a unoccupied section of the room where there was a dirt floor, "Alright, Terra. We'll begin with you showing me the basics so I can get a better idea of what you're able to do."

Terra nodded and went through her attacks. Terra's Bite was stronger than before and would actually do quite a bit of damage during a battle. Leer was pretty strong as well. Outrage needed a lot of work, but that was alright. Ancient Power was coming along really nicely though Terra's control was just a bit shaky after a minute of using the move. Substitute was very good and only needed a bit more work to be viable during a battle. Toxic needed work, but was definitely usable during a battle. Sandstorm needed a lot of work mostly due to control issues. Nodding to herself, Vali decided on how they'd be doing this, "Okay, Terra. You've got a good hold on Bite and Leer. Substitute needs just a little bit of work. Ancient Power needs some work though it's mostly strengthening your control that's needed. Toxic can be used in battle, but you'll need to strengthen it," Terra nodded with a curious look on her face, "Outrage and Sandstorm need the most work. We'll start with working on controlling Sandstorm then focus on getting Outrage up to snuff. Okay?"

Terra nodded and they got straight to work once Vali pulled Elrond over to keep the Sandstorm contained. It would be another training exorcise for him that would likely help during their battle against Giovanni since there was no telling if one of his pokemon knew Sandstorm. Elrond didn't mind the break since Grass Knot was difficult mostly due to him never using a move like it. Elrond spoke while Terra worked on controlling her Sandstorm, " _Vulpix is going to get bored just watching all this."_

"I know," Vali glanced towards where Vulpix was laying enjoying the warmth from one of her pokemon using Sunny Day, "I'll set something up for him soon,"

Elrond nodded slowly as he peered into his psychic barrier where Terra's Sandstorm raged, " _We may not win this battle."_

"I know, but we've still got to try," Vali reached out to rub the top of Elrond's head, "We can always go for a rematch, but I know that we've got a chance to win so long as we give it our all,"

Elrond let out a low sigh and shifted to lean against her, " _I know. I just can't shake the feeling this will be even harder on us than before."_

"It's our last Gym Battle and we're dealing with a type that has some advantage over two of our pack," Vali watched as the Sandstorm parted for a second to reveal Terra standing in the center with her eyes closed, "It'll be our toughest battle yet, but the Conference will be even tougher,"

Elrond's ear twitched as his nose wrinkled, " _Once the Conference is over, we'll be taking some time to actually relax, right?"_

"Of course," Vali planned on at least two to three weeks of simply playing and relaxing with only the barely needed amount of training needed to keep from losing their skills, "Everyone definitely deserves some actual rest and relaxation. Granted we'll be doing some light training to keep up your abilities, we won't go all out like we usually do,"

 _"That sounds pleasant,"_ Elrond offered her a small smile, " _I look forward to it,"_

Vali nodded as she smiled back at him. She looked forward to having some actual off time especially since it would allow her time to just be with everyone.

* * *

Steven looked up from the computer where he was viewing Giovanni's past Gym Battles when a paw touched his leg. Wagging his tails, Vulpix yipped at him earning a slight smile. Bending down, he picked up the fox, "Hey, Vulpix. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with Vali?"

"He decided to come on ahead of me," Vali said from the door way of the computer room, "How goes research?"

"Fairly well. Giovanni is definitely lining up to the ruler type of Gym Leaders," Steven eyed her taking in the dirt stained and slight ragged clothes, "Have a good training session?"

Vali nodded as Steven scratched underneath Vulpix's chin, "Everyone has made progress on their moves. Terra is having a bit of trouble controlling Sandstorm, but if we focus on it a bit more, she'll be able to have full control over it like she should soon enough," She walked over to him, "So do you want to eat dinner together?"

"Sure," Steven released Vulpix when the vulpine pokemon began struggling, "But shouldn't you take a shower first?"

"I'm going to. I just wanted to know if you'd like to try a place that I found on the way back," Vulpix barked at Vali earning a soft laugh and slight grin, "That _Vulpix_ found on our way back. The food smelt really good and from what I could see of the menu prices, everything is fairly cheap. Basically one of those hole in the wall joints,"

Steven thought about it for a few moments before nodding, "Sure, any idea what kind of food they sell?"

"Sandwiches, pizza, and a couple others from what I saw through the menu," Vali bent down to pet Vulpix, "I'll go take a quick shower and change,"

"I'll finish up here," Steven nodded as he turned back to the computer.

Vali patted Steven's shoulder before heading off to her room. He pressed play on the video and resumed watching it while writing down notes. When he pokenav rang, he answered it without pausing the video, "Hello?"

"Hey, Steven," Ryner's voice came through, "What are you doing?"

"Looking through video's on Giovanni's past gym battles and making notes," Steven answered as he spotted a rather interesting maneuver one of the challenger's pokemon, a Fearow, pulled off to defeat the Golem Giovanni was using at the time, "I'm going out to dinner with Vali once she's done in her room. What's up?"

"Nothing too big, we just found a some weird data in the lab's system," Ryner sounded more tired than normal, "I've been trying to figure out where it came from, but I can't find anything save for a name,"

"What's the name?" Steven asked as he exited out of the videos.

"Fuji. Doctor John Fuji," Ryner's words made Steven frown.

"You mean the man that worked beside Gym Leader Blaine to create the fossil pokemon revival system? That Doctor John Fuji?" Steven couldn't keep the confusion from his voice, "What is the weird data?"

"We can't really decode anything about it save for the word clone," Ryner sounded a bit frustrated, "As best any of us can tell, it deals with the old way of referring to fossil pokemon, but that doesn't make sense considering the fact six years ago the term got thrown out,"

"How recent was the data put in?" Steven frowned as he listened to Ryner type on whatever computer he was using.

Ryner spoke after a few moments, "Five years and six months ago. Four months before Doctor Fuji left the lab to work with a private contractor," He paused after a moment, "Okay this is weird."

"What's going on?" Steven's frown deepened.

"A file was attached to the data," Ryner sounded annoyed, "Most of the file is encoded, the only things not encoded are a few news paper articles and some hospital reports. All of them on Doctor Fuji's daughter, Amber Fuji, who died around the time all this was entered into the system,"

Steven felt disbelief run through him, "Fuji wouldn't have tried what I think this is implying. Cloning humans has never been done before, no one has ever focused on humans only pokemon and fossils."

"I don't know, Steven," Ryner let out a low sigh, "What should I do with this?"

Steven leaned back against his chair, "Inform the League and leave it in their hands, it doesn't have anything to do with us and to be perfectly honest, I don't think anything's really going to come of it."

"Will do," Ryner replied as Steven began logging out of the computer, "Before I let you go, I did manage to contact the main fossil research lab in Kalos,"

Steven straightened up at that, "Oh? What did they say?"

"At the current moment, they only have Tyrunt fossils on hand," Ryner answered with a slight chuckle when Steven let out a low groan, "But they might be getting some Amaura fossils in a few months, they'll contact me when they do. They're open for negotiations, but it'll probably be for a fossil exchange," Ryner sounded a little amused, "So does Vali know you're trying to get her an Amaura?"

"No. It's a surprise," Steven finished logging off, "I also didn't tell her since it wasn't certain that I'd be able to get one. I still have to talk with Father and get his agreement which is going to be difficult,"

"He won't really protest once he actually meets Vali in person and sees how she treats pokemon," Ryner was grinning at him when he pulled his pokenav away from his ear.

Steven chuckled a bit, "Probably," He spotted Vali standing in the door way, "Ryner, I've got to go. Talk to you later."

"I'll keep you updated. Tell Vali I said hello," Ryner told him, "Bye,"

The call cut and Steven put his pokenav away before getting up from his chair. Vali looked at him curiously, "Who was that?"

"Ryner. He said to tell you hello," Steven collected his notes and walked over to the door, "Ready to eat?"

"Yup," Vali moved out of the way and they headed towards the entrance of the pokemon center, "What did he need?"

"Just wanted to keep me up to date on all the data they're looking through," Steven handed Vali his notes, "This is what I got from the videos,"

"Thanks," Vali began looking over the notes, "I'll probably watch them later and draw up my own notes so we can compare them,"

"Sounds good," Steven opened the door, "Though you might want to wait to go through those, you're the one leading us to this place Vulpix found,"

"Right," Vali's cheeks flushed in embarrassment as she looked up from the notes, "Follow me,"

Steven shook his head in amusement. Vali glared at him for a few moments before focusing on leading them to the restaurant she found. Leave it to Vali to find researching a Gym Leader more important than eating dinner.

* * *

"Alright," Vali looked over the notes she'd taken on both the videos and from Steven's own notes, "Once you guys master those moves, we need to focus now more than ever on speed and power. This Gym Leader's pokemon focus on power even more than Surge and their defense is top notch, I'll be playing videos of his past battles for you guys to help prepare for our coming battles," She looked up at her pokemon with a slight grin, "I doubt you need the reminder, but remember this is the last badge we need before qualifying for the Conference," Everyone nodded with determination on their faces, "Get back to training then, we're going to need it,"

Everyone but Terra, Vulpix, and Eevee darted off to their tasks. Vali turned to the three with a light smile, "Alright, Terra, we'll be focusing on Outrage today. I set up some targets for you. Have fun," Terra nodded and walked over to the area that she pointed to, "Vulpix, you'll be running the obstacle course I've set up," Vulpix perked up and looked towards the course, "Go have some fun," He let out an excited yip and darted towards the course, "Eevee," Eevee looked at her curiously, "Today, I thought we'd spend some time meditating."

Eevee nodded and they walked over to a set of nearby mats. Sitting down, Vali put her notes to the side and dropped her bag on top of them to ensure they didn't get blown away by any wind caused by the various attacks being practiced. She began looking over her mental shields making sure there weren't any weak points before reinforcing them. once more.

* * *

Elrond held out Vali's pokenav to her and she wiped off her hands to answer it before handing it back to him, "Hello?"

"Hey, Vali," Delia said sounding tired and slightly drained, "I was wondering if you'd be able to take some time off of training today,"

Vali looked away from where she was scrubbing Balto's fur free of dirt and dust, "Yeah, it isn't a problem since we're taking today off to relax," She saw how pale Delia was even through the video screen, "Delia, is something wrong? You're looking pale."

"I will explain when we see one another," Delia replied with a deep frown, "Are you in the pokemon center?"

Vali nodded as she turned back to Balto, "Yeah, I'm giving Balto a bath in one of the rooms they have available. Room three."

"I'll see you in five minutes," Delia told her before cutting the call.

Vali looked at Balto who let out a low whine of concern with his ears drooped. She sighed deeply, "Why do I have a feeling this isn't going to be a happy visit?"

Balto didn't answer her nor did Elrond who put her pokenav away. Vali finished scrubbing Balto's fur and began the process of rinsing the shampoo from the thick fur coating his body. It was strange to see Delia so pale and almost made her wonder if Sirius had gotten hurt. The only reason she didn't think he had was mostly due to the fact the Sirius had her as one of his Emergency contacts just after Delia and just before Professor Oak. Which meant Ash might be hurt though that didn't make sense either, Delia would've said something rather than asked to come see her if only to stay with Ash. Mentally shaking her head, she focused on washing Balto. The grooming room door opened as hot water mixed with the grimy mixture of soap and dirt as it sprayed down towards the drain. Delia walked in looking shaky and tired, "Vali."

"Delia," Vali looked at Elrond who quickly grabbed the shower head and took over cleaning off Balto, "What's going on?" She dried her hands off and walked over to her mother figure, "Did something happen?"

"I..." Delia hesitated for a moment before answering, "Ash's father sent something. A letter and a box,"

Vali's eyes widened at that and her mind began to whirl. Millions of questions and thoughts raced through her head, she couldn't really believe what she'd just heard. Delia never spoke of Ash's father in anyway save to Sirius or Professor Oak. So hearing Delia mention Ash's father and the fact he'd sent something, it was somewhat unbelievable. She voice the first clear question, "What do you mean?"

"Ash's father sent a letter to me and the box for Ash," Delia looked like she was seconds away from collapsing and Vali helped her over to one of the benches against the wall, "They just showed up today,"

Vali frowned at that, "But why?"

"I don't know. I haven't touched either of them outside of making sure Ash wouldn't find them," Delia slumped slightly, "I would've gone to Sirius about this, but he isn't answering his phone," Because Sirius was deep in the wilds and his pokegear wouldn't be able to get a signal, "I haven't opened the letter yet. I don't think I can until Sirius comes home,"

Delia looked close to tears and Vali's heart ached knowing this was hurting her, "Delia, don't open the letter until then if you don't want to."

"I don't want to give Ash the box," Delia told her, "But Ash needs to know that his father sent him something. He needs to that his father still thinks about him," Vali stayed quiet not really knowing what to say or feeling like she had any real right to say anything in this situation, "I don't know what to do,"

Vali swallowed a bit as she sat down beside Delia and hugged her, "I don't really know what to say, Delia. I don't feel like I have any right to say anything."

Delia hugged her tightly, "I shouldn't even have brought this up to you. You're only ten after all."

"But," Vali hesitated for a few moments, "Maybe you should wait to decide with Sirius and offer Ash a choice once you do. It does deal with his father and while he is young, he's still part of the situation,"

Delia nodded slowly, "That sounds like a good idea," She pulled away and sniffed softly, "Sorry about this, Vali. I just-"

"Don't worry about it, you needed to talk to someone," Vali wondered why she hadn't gone to Professor Oak, "Are you okay now?"

Delia nodded as she wiped at her eyes, "Yeah," She sniffed a bit and looked at where Balto was getting washed off, "Taking the day off?"

"We've been working so hard this week that I thought it would be a good idea to ensure no one burned out," Vali stood up and took over rinsing off Balto, "Where's Ash?"

"At the Professor's lab with Gary, they're starting school again next week," Delia walked over and picked up a bucket, "Mind if I help?"

"Go ahead," Vali looked at her, "Are you really okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine," Delia offered her an awkward smile, "It just startled me. I haven't seen or heard anything from Ash's father since a day after Ash was born," Vali winced at that as Delia filled the bucket up with warm water, "He just...Disappeared without warning only telling me not to search for him, he said it would be safer for Ash,"

Vali snorted softly feeling absolutely no respect for the man, "Not a good excuse for pretty much abandoning his family."

"We weren't a family though," Delia shook her head as she walked over with the bucket and got Balto's other side, "Ash's father and I just weren't like that. Things between us were complicated, we were friends at best,"

So that meant Ash wasn't a planned baby, Vali winced at the mental calculations knowing that Delia had to be maybe eighteen when she'd had Ash if a bit younger. Granted, Vali's parents hadn't been much older at nineteen years old, but they had an excuse of being in a war with James Potter being the last of their family alive until she came along. She moved a bit closer to Balto as Delia went to refill her bucket, "Does Ash..."

Vali trailed off not really knowing how to voice her question. Delia didn't need her to finish asking it, "No, he doesn't know. I plan on telling him when he's older and more able to understand it."

"Don't wait too long," Was all Vali could really say, "With how the world works, you never really know if..."

Vali cut herself off not wanting to even voice the idea of such a thing happening to Delia. Delia let out a soft chuckle, "I know, Vali. I will."

* * *

Delia stayed for another hour after Balto's bath had finished and spent that time spoiling Vali's pokemon while also spending time with the fire-type master-in-training. It was nice despite the beginning of the visit and Delia left seeming calmer than when she'd arrived. When Steven asked why Delia had visited when they'd met up for dinner, she merely told him that Delia had just wanted to check in and see her. She didn't feel right talking about it especially since the whole thing with Ash's father didn't truly concern her despite Ash being her little brother in every way save for blood and name. Steven took the excuse without a word though she had a feeling he knew she'd held something back, but thankfully didn't comment on it.

* * *

On the next Saturday, Delia brought Ash to Viridian for the day while she got whatever was needed at the house. Vali decided to have some fun with Ash and took him around Viridian. They ended up seeing a movie and got some ice cream. She led Ash over to the pool with the Poliwag and took a seat by the water. Her pokemon began to play around with Eevee settling beside her and Celina taking flight with Pidgey following. The two had reached some sort of agreement about training though Elrond didn't relay what it all entailed. Elrond made sure Vulpix, Arwen, and Pele didn't wander off. Balto laid down behind Vali and closed his eyes with a low sigh clearly enjoying the time he'd get to nap as working on those high powered attacks had left him quite tired. Ash looked at the Poliwag playing in the pond, "Hey, Vali?"

"Hmm?" Vali glanced at him as she took a lick of her birthday cake flavored ice cream.

"When you became a trainer, were you ever worried about your pokemon not being strong enough?" Ash asked with a slight frown.

Vali shook her head, "No, not really. I was more worried about not being able to bring their true strength out or not being strong enough to support them," She looked at him curiously, "Why do you ask?"

"It's just that Gary and I had a battle," Ash explained with a slight frown, "Even though Pidgey and I have been together longer, he still won with Bellsprout," He looked a bit sullen, "I mean we had the type advantage too,"

"Ash, type advantage doesn't always secure a win. I won my first gym battle with two fire-types after all and the gym leader was using rock-types," Vali pointed out before licking at her ice cream again, "You also need to consider something. Were you playing to her strengths?"

"Strengths? You mean Pidgey's attacks being strong?" Ash asked as his nose scrunched up in confusion.

Vali snorted softly, "Not that kind of strength, I meant what Pidgey's good at. Pidgey is a fast flyer, right?" Ash nodded slowly, "So you use her speed to your advantage by dodging attacks and striking quickly, the Pidgey-line are fast especially when trained well. Did you do that?"

Ash shook his head, "No, I had her attack Bellsprout."

"Let me guess, she took one too many hits and went down?" Ash looked a bit guilty as he nodded, "That's expected,"

"How come?" Ash looked slightly annoyed, "Is it because I suck at training her?"

"No, Ash," Vali denied having seen him train Pidgey, "You're doing very well at training her. What I meant is that you're focusing on power and endurance when battling,"

"So?" Ash's nose scrunched up.

Vali finished her ice cream before answering, "Pidgey isn't built for that, Ash. The Pidgey-line are built for speed especially in their lower evolutions. Enduring repeated attacks and fighting back are for a pokemon like Terra. The Pidgey-line aren't built to become tanks, Ash, and you're trying to make Pidgey into one."

"Oh," Ash looked down at his ice cream.

"Ash, that doesn't mean you're doing a bad job," Ash opened his mouth to argue only to stop when she held up a hand, "Pidgey has a lot of power in her attacks which is a good thing especially once she reaches Pidgeot. What I'm trying to say is that you need to stop rushing in when battling and focus on what _Pidgey_ can actually do not what you want her to do,"

"So focus on speed?" Ash asked as he looked at her.

Vali nodded with a slight grin, "Yes, but don't let your other training fall to the wayside. Work on Accuracy as well, Pidgey will need it."

Ash gained a determined look on his face, "Alright! We'll do that and kick Gary's butt next time we battle."

Both of them let out shocked yelps when one of the Poliwag sprayed them with water, Balto jumping up with a low growl earning a squeak of surprise from the Poliwag in question. Eevee glared at Poliwag as he began to shake off the water and bared his fangs. Vali spat out the water that had ended up in her mouth as her pokemon began to chase around the surprisingly agile water-type. She stood up feeling glad that her things were at the pokemon center and her pokenav was waterproof. Ash got up shaking his head like a dog as she said, "Well that happened."

"Why'd it do that?" Ash asked as he stopped shaking his head.

"No idea," Vali focused on her pokemon as she shouted, "Guys, go easy on it. Poliwag didn't mean anything by it," The Poliwag nodded quickly letting out a few sharp warbling gurgles in agreement, "See," No one looked convinced, "Please just settle down, it's a bit of water that's all,"

* * *

It was a mud and water coated Vali that returned an equally messy Ash to Delia with Pidgey and Celina being the only ones that hadn't gotten involved in the ensuing water fight that had developed due to a mischievous group of Poliwag. Thankfully none of her pokemon took any real exception to it, they had enjoyed the whole debacle after a little while. It did mean everyone would be getting a thorough cleaning once Vali had gotten somewhat cleaned up. Delia giggled softly, "You guys look like you've had a lot of fun."

"Vali took me to get ice cream after we watched the movie," Ash grinned brightly his earlier bout of negative thinking already a thing of the past, "We got into a water war with some Poliwag,"

"Did you?" Delia asked with a smile, "That would explain things," She looked at Vali, "We should get going though. Alakazam already took the groceries home and is probably looking forward to resting,"

"That's fine, I had a good time," Vali just really wanted a shower, "See you two next week?"

"You should come home at some point this week," Delia suggested as Alakazam appeared, "To enjoy some home cooked food,"

Vali nodded already looking forward to it, "Sure, we'll discuss details later."

"We'll talk soon," Delia said as Alakazam grabbed her shoulder.

Alakazam grabbed Ash's shoulder as Vali told the boy, "Remember what I said, Ash. Strength is worthless without a plan and the ability to use it."

"I will, Vali," Ash's eyes gleamed with determination as Pidgey settled somewhat reluctantly on his shoulder.

Vali waved as Alakazam nodded to her before disappearing with Delia, Ash, and Pidgey. She headed into the pokemon center and got cleaned up before helping her pokemon do the same.

* * *

"Vali!" Came from behind the fire-type master-in-training as she headed for the training facility.

Vali paused as she turned her head and found Zaria rushing up towards her, "Zaria?"

The mocha skinned dark-type master-in-training grinned as she skidded to a halt behind Vali, "Sup, Vali."

"Hey, Zaria," Vali turned to face her friend, "What brings you to Viridian? And is that a Sableye?"

The Sableye hung from Zaria's neck peering at Vali curiously. Its blue gem-like eyes were a milky almost white blue showing that the creature was still quite young. Its skin was a light purple color just beginning to darken into the deep amethyst the species was known for. The red gem on its chest was about the size of a dime rather than the almost tennis ball size they usually were. The same could be said for the gems on its back. Its ears twitched with every sound echoing through the city. Its mouth opened letting out a soft nervous chitter revealing sharp fangs. Zaria grinned as she reached up to stroke the Sableye's head, "This is Zabbi, she hatched from an egg I got during a minor tournament while in Lavender Town. As for why I'm in Viridian, I'm scouting out Giovanni since I'm debating whether or not to have him as my eighth gym battle."

"Who'd you battle for your sixth and seventh?" Vali asked as Zabbi the Sableye slowly began to reach out to her, "I mean you've probably fought Koga, but you'd still be in Cinnabar if you were battled Blaine,"

"You'd be right," Zaria smiled as Vali held out her hand and allowed Zabbi to play with her fingers, "I ended up going for that small dark-type gym. You know the one that's near the old Kanto/Johto railroad through the mountains?"

"The one that ended up falling into to disuse after the many cave ins," Vali was surprised by how careful Zabbi was being with her sharp claws, "How was it?"

Zaria grinned a bit, "Not bad, it wasn't as difficult as the main gyms, but the gym leader was definitely worth being called one. He has this kick ass Umbreon-"

Probably becoming impatient, Vulpix let himself out of his pokeball cutting off Zaria as Zabbi let out a hiss of surprise. Vali bit back a hiss of pain as Zabbi's claws dug into her fingers as a small shriek of surprise left the Sableye. Vulpix shook himself out as Zabbi released her fingers earning a hiss of pain as the small barbs on the Sableye's claws caught on her skin. Vulpix froze for all of a few seconds before growling at Zabbi in anger with fangs bared and fur bristling in anger. Zaria backed up a bit as Vali bit out, "Vulpix, stop," Vulpix flicked an ear at her as he stood protectively in front of her, "You just startled Zabbi which is why they hurt me," Vulpix immediately stopped growling and looked at her with wide disbelieving eyes, "That's what happened, Little One."

Vulpix let out a whine falling out of protective mode and into apology mode. Vali bent down to reassure him that she wasn't made as Zaria whistled, "So your egg hatched, huh?"

"Yeah a bit before Christmas," Vali winced as she flexed her bleeding fingers, "Right, I need to go get this checked out,"

"I'll come with," Zaria grimaced at the injury as she pulled out a clean looking rag, "Here,"

Vali wrapped up her fingers and put pressure on them as they headed to a nearby clinic.

* * *

Vali left the clinic with two stitches where Zabbi's claws had dug the deepest. Zabbi apologized and after a few tense moments got along with Vulpix once her not-so little fox stopped sulking about being the cause of his mother figure's newest injury. After arriving at the training facility, the two began to play after Vali set her pokemon to work with Zaria's joining in. She was a little surprised to find that Zaria had also gotten a Swinub though given that the Safari-zone had quite a few pokemon from other regions running around this year, it wasn't quite so surprising. Zaria looked at Vulpix as he wrestled around with Zabbi who was being careful with its claws, "Damn, he's getting pretty big considering he hatched around Christmas and is the runt of his litter."

"It's because he has the King-gene," Vali smiled over at Terra who was working hard to master Sandstorm at the moment, "He's going to be huge as a Ninetales,"

"Damn," Zaria shook her head, "How the hell do you have a Shiny and a King with both pretty much falling into your lap?"

"My luck is absolutely random," Vali leaned back against the wall, "So Zabbi, are they male or female?"

"Male," Zaria glanced at Vali's bandaged fingers with a small wince, "I'm really sorry about that. Zabbi's still getting used to everything,"

"It's fine since he hatched what two weeks ago?" Zaria nodded at her words, "So don't worry about it, I'm just glad he isn't an adult or that could've been worse,"

Both of them shuddered a bit, it was a well known fact that adult Sableye could shred a human without much trouble with their claws. Thankfully, the odd species tended to ignore humanity unless something took its attention even then they tended to avoid humans for the most part. Zaria followed Vali's lead and leaned back against the wall, "Eevee looks like he's doing well."

"He's better and with any luck, he'll be able to battle by next year," Vali smiled a bit as Eevee worked with Pele, "He's opening up to everyone on the team though some more than others,"

"That's good," Zaria put her arms behind her head, "So where's Steven?"

"Training in a diffrent facility," Vali grinned a bit as she watched Vulpix and Zabbi roll around, "He found one better suited to his tastes. It's an awesome place too, but too expensive for me especially since I pretty much blew my budget on getting some TMs," She mentally winced at the reminder though thankfully she'd been earning money back thanks to participating in trainer battles, "He's really looking forward to battling against Giovanni. I can't wait to watch,"

"Even if I don't end up choosing to battle Giovanni, I'm staying long enough to see that," Zaria grinned a bit, "It's bound to be good especially if the rumors about Giovanni are true,"

Vali hummed lightly in agreement. The battles were going to be amazing especially since there was a chance that Steven could lose. Battles were always better when there was a chance someone you knew could lose, it made your heart race especially when everything was so close that a single wrong move meant losing.

* * *

"Zaria," Steven looked at the mocha skinned girl with some surprise, "What brings you to Viridian?"

"Checking out Giovanni to see if I want to battle him or not," Zaria answered as she took a seat across from him with Vali, "Saw Vali on my way to the gym and decided to catch up,"

"I see," Steven noted the bandages on Vali's fingers, "What happened to your fingers?"

Vali used her left hand to pick up a spoon, "Zaria's got a Sableye that she hatched a bit ago. Vulpix startled him and since I was letting the little one play with my fingers, he dug his claws in."

Steven winced at that as phantom pain jolted around his left ankle where a Sableye had once gotten his leg in one of the caves he'd been looking through. The Sableye hadn't been serious which meant he'd gotten away with his life, but his ankle bore the scars of the event. He gave Vali a sympathetic look, "That had to hurt, you're alright though?"

"Won't even scar if I'm careful and avoid breaking the stitches," Vali replied before beginning to eat her soup, "Zabbi's claws are sharp. He's going to be a good fighter once he's old enough,"

Zaria nodded looking a bit guilty, "Definitely. He's got a good move-pool and Nurse Joy's given me the go ahead on training him. I'm having Nuz train with him alongside Sneasel. Mostly Sneasel with Nuz acting as the supervisor, Sneasel and Zabbi have similar body types after all plus their species' rely heavily on speed. It just makes sense."

"Just makes sure you do a lot of endurance training too," Vali suggested after taking a drink of soda, "Not too much while he's still young, but some since his body isn't exactly built to take a bunch of hits,"

"I'm planning on it," Zaria reached into her pocket and pulled out a notepad, "By the way, I made a list of pokemon that I saw while in Lavender Town. That Pokemon Tower is really creepy, my pokemon got put through their paces in it while helping out my dad's ranger team,"

Vali took the pad and began looking through it with interest. Steven smiled a bit, "What exactly was it like? I've heard a lot about it, but haven't really thought of going to visit it."

"Creepy, but also really sad," Zaria's crimson eyes dulled a bit, "So many pokemon are buried there, I've never seen so many graves in my life and knowing that they belong to pokemon, it really puts things into perspective," She laid a hand on the pokeballs at her waist, "It just shows how dangerous battles can be even if some of those pokemon died outside of it,"

Vali looked up from the notepad, "I'm going to visit it at some point," Steven looked at her in surprise and she offered him a small smile, "It's pretty much a Kanto trainers tradition. You've got to go at least once to Pokemon Tower even if it's only to go ghost hunting. It's also Agatha's hometown."

"Oh yeah, Agatha of the Elite Four, right?" Zaria asked with a slight grin, "I remember hearing that. I don't think I saw her there though,"

"You probably wouldn't have," Vali's eyes went distant, "Agatha doesn't like most people and tends to keep them from seeing her until she wants to be seen," The smile on her face brightened a bit, "She loves scaring people too. No wonder her ghosts love the old woman,"

Zaria eyed Vali as the fire-type master-in-training came back to the present and resumed eating, "It almost sounds like you know her."

"I do," Vali admitted earning a wide eyed look from Zaria, "She came to the lab after I came to Kanto and stayed for a bit,"

"No way," Zaria breathed looking a bit star-struck, "Seriously?" Vali nodded with an amused gleam in her eyes, "So cool," Zaria paused a bit as confusion slid across her face, "Wait, you aren't from Kanto?"

Smile dropping, Vali shook her head, "No, Sirius and I came to Kanto a few years ago. I can't remember much of how we ended up in Kanto, but considering the dangerous situation going on back there, we didn't exactly have much choice," She shrugged a bit, "Regardless, Kanto and Pallet Town are home."

"Wow, I never really guessed," Zaria's expression remained curious, "What was your old region like?"

"Dull. No pokemon," Vali held up a hand stalling Zaria's likely outburst, "Zaria, I know it seems impossible, but back there, we didn't have any pokemon," She smiled a bit, "Kanto is so much better than back there. I love pokemon especially my little family,"

Zaria nodded slowly looking a bit unsure, "I can't really see any kind of place without pokemon. So you can't remember how you ended up in Kanto?"

Vali shook her head, "Not really, I just remember it being really cold before I fell unconscious. Woke up in snow with Sirius, we ended up in Pallet Town though I can't remember how since Sirius was carrying me and I was really tired."

It was as close to the truth Vali was permitted to tell anyone. That any of those in the know were allowed to say, Steven mused as Zaria began asking Vali questions about England though the fire-type master-in-trainer didn't have much to say. She never did even when magic was involved though he didn't blame her. With everything she'd told him and the picture he'd gotten of her 'childhood', he doubted she had many good memories of that place.

* * *

Running through the forest surrounding Viridian away from the normal paths, Balto moved quickly feeling free as he pushed himself go faster. Vali clung to his back radiating a sense of joy and contentment pushing him to further his natural speed. In moments like this since his evolution, he had found himself growing ever closer to his partner. It was a chance to just be with her without their pack running amok or needing guidance. A chance to enjoy the peace and closeness they'd had before their journey began. And for this reason alone, he loved to run as far and fast as possible with no true direction in mind.

Balto loved each member of his pack from the raging fire of Smaug to the ball of flickering flame known as Vulpix. For all that he may love and care for them, he just craved some moments of peace where it was just Vali and him. Each of them required a diffrent amount of focus and guidance especially the young kit that had hatched into their pack. With another pup on the way who was the Regulus' kin, it wouldn't be long until his time with Vali would be even more limited. He didn't mind most of the time since as Alpha, it was his duty to ensure each of them were safe and as content as possible. But with the battle approaching them, he felt like being a bit selfish since this portion of their journey would be ending soon.

Vali tightened her grip on him and Balto slowed after catching the scent of water. He headed for it and found a small river with a small clearing. Bending down, he felt Vali jump off his back and stood back up before padding over to the water. He scented it again ensuring it was as clean as possible before taking a drink. He kept an ear out for danger, but the forest pokemon were content to leave them be which suited him just fine. He felt a hand on his side and looked towards the source causing water to drip from his chin earning a giggle from Vali. She scratched under his jaw at the point where it connected to his neck earning a low groan from him. She spoke in a gentle tone, "Things are getting so busy that we can't spend time together like we used to huh, Balto?" He grunted in agreement, "I promise once everything is said and done, we'll take some time for ourselves," She let out a soft laugh, "Funny how I barely had any friends before coming to this world only to find everything I've ever wanted," The light in her eyes dulled a bit and her smile dropped, "I wonder how they're doing back there. I hope Hermione and Ron made it out alright."

Balto let out a small whine not wanting Vali to be sad while with him. He nudged her hard enough to send her falling to the ground earning a surprised yelp from Vali. Vali pushed herself into a sitting position and he began to lick her face earning a shriek of protest. She pushed at his face and he stopped licking after ensuring her face was completely covered in slobber. Vali glared at him, "What was that for, Balto?" He gave her a look and she kept up the glare for a few moments before her eyes softened in realization, "It's because I was becoming sad, wasn't it?" She sighed reaching out towards him and he settled down with his head in her lap, "Sorry, Balto. I didn't mean to get sad, but sometimes thinking about back then..." She shook her head, "I'm glad that I have you, Balto. You're sometimes the only thing really keeping me on track and out of the darkness."

Balto let out a low rumble nuzzling her earning a soft smile. Vali rubbed his ears, "Thanks, Balto. I'm really glad you're with me."

They definitely needed to spend time like this a bit more often. Sometimes his trainer overworked herself, Vali got too caught up in helping them and forgot about herself. It was a good thing he was a sensible pokemon otherwise who knows what his human would get up to especially since their pack didn't really seem to notice things on a deeper scale outside of Smaug, Celina, and Elrond. Perhaps he needed to take the cub of their pack aside and start teaching him, Vulpix was definitely old enough to start learning and intelligent enough for the knowledge to actually be usable. Their human needed all the help she could get, the amount of trouble they'd ended up in since leaving the pack territory said everything.

* * *

On the morning of her gym battle, Vali got up early with Elrond and Eevee to meditate. Eevee had begun joining them awhile back mostly to gain energy for his Stored Power, but through Elrond, she'd learned that it also helped him get ready to face the day. It helped bring him a sense of mental stability and calm that made dealing with everything that happened during the day easier. She also knew it was because Eevee wanted to spend some quiet time with his trainer which warmed her heart. Much like Eevee, Elrond used morning meditation to help build himself up for the day and spend some quiet time with her. Of course it was the same for her, it also gave her a some peace especially on days when her dreams were at their worst.

Waking up everyone, they got breakfast and Vali gave them a pep-talk to help get ready for their gym battle. She grinned at them all, "You guys know what I'm going to say since I've said it every single time we've had a gym battle. We're going to fight our hardest and come out on top since we've worked so hard," Noises of agreement and determined grins were tossed towards her, "This will be our last Gym Battle before the Conference if we win this, I'm counting on each and everyone of you to do your part. Alright?" Everyone nodded or voiced their agreement, "Good! We're going to win this."

* * *

The Viridian City Gym's battlefield was a bare field of earth without any rocks or anything that would put Giovanni's pokemon at an immediate advantage unlike other gyms. What really put Giovanni apart from other Gym Leaders was his trainers box, it was a lot like the Emperor's box of the Roman Colosseum set above the battlefield. She took in the elegant chair Giovanni rested on with a Persian sitting beside him and could definitely see that Steven had been right. The man saw himself above his challenger. Taking her place in the trainer's box, she met Giovanni's dark eyes and grinned at the man.

Giovanni's lips twitched slightly as the Referee came out and announced, "This is a five-on-five gym battle between Gym Leader Giovanni of Viridian City and Challenger Valkyrie Potter-Black of Pallet Town! Only the Challenger may make substitutions! Trainers release your pokemon!"

Giovanni tapped a button and a Rhyhorn was released onto the field. It roared loudly stamping its feet and glaring at Vali with dark crimson eyes. Likely a test, she mused pressing a hand to her pokeballs until her hand settled on the correct one. She took out Pele's pokeball and called out, "Come out and battle with me, my friend!" Pele appeared from her pokeball, "Pele, we're battling a Ryhorn," Pele looked at Rhyhorn slowly and curiously, "Start off with Focus Energy and Double Team then Flamethrower."

Granted the Flamethrower wouldn't do too much damage due to the stone that made up Rhyhorn's armor, it would begin the process of overheating Rhyhorn which would aid in exhausting it. Since brute force wouldn't be possible, Vali and Pele would need to exhaust Ryhorn's naturally low stamina. Granted as a Gym Leader's pokemon, Rhyhorn would have more stamina than an untrained one, but it would be possible to exhaust it especially since this particular specimen didn't show any signs of evolution. They would need to be careful especially if Giovanni had helped this Rhyhorn gain some mastery of the earth. Pulling on the sense of calm from her meditations, she focused on the battle at hand.

Rhyhorn's eyes went wide as twelve Pele's appeared and released streams of fire towards it. Rhyhorn shuffled in an attempt to avoid the scorching hot flames that threatened to burn everything in their path to a crisp. It grunted as the flames licked at its right side. Rhyhorn retaliated with Rock Throw attempting to pelt Pele with fist sized rocks. Pele shuffled back to avoid a majority of them while using Magnitude causing the earth to shake harshly beneath Rhyhorn earning an alarmed grunt. Pele continued on with another Flamethrower and another use of Double Team. Rhyhorn retaliated with another Rock Throw before rushing forward with a Horn Attack. Pele stamped her front hoof onto the ground and summoned up her Earth Defense ensuring the only path Rhyhorn had was in front of it. Vali grinned a bit shouting, "Hot Pot!"

Giovanni's eyes narrowed in confusion as the entrance to Pele's defense slid shut and a layer of earth closed over the top. Vali kept up her grin as the small holes within Pele's Earth Defense began to glow orange and radiate heat. 'Hot Pot' boiled down to a rather simple strategy. Close all exits as tightly as possible while forming small nearly invisible holes in the walls of the defense, the pokemon inside, Pele, would use a fire-type attack, Heat Wave, to basically create a furnace/pot. As a pokemon able to survive in a volcano, Pele would have no trouble dealing with the heat and even regain whatever energy she used during the attack while Rhyhorn would be facing burns, heat exhaustion, and a myriad of other problems. Especially since Pele would also be using Toxic and any other attacks she chose, it was a good thing a pokemon was immune to its own poisons otherwise this strategy would be a complete double edge sword.

Eventually Pele dropped her defense revealing both pokemon that had been inside, Vali winced at the sight. Rhyhorn glared at Pele as shudders racked its body with each heavy pant clearly holding on by a thread. Grey stone blackened by burns and ash, a small amount of smoke rose up from the small holes in Rhyhorn's armor that help keep the heavy armor coating its body. Pele was bleeding from a few puncture marks and scratches showed that Rhyhorn had managed to get close to her. They'd have to work on finding some way to restrain her opponents while using that move. Pele used Magnitude again earning a loud rumbling groan from Rhyhorn as it stumbled a bit. Rhyhorn used Rock Throw though based on the reduced size in stones, it was very close to passing out. Pele dodged the attack and used Flamethrower. Rhyhorn stumbled as it attempted to shuffle out of the attacks path and fell onto its side. Pele used Magnitude again followed by another Flamethrower. Rhyhorn let out a final groan before passing out and the Referee called out, "Rhyhorn is unable to battle!"

Giovanni returned his Rhyhorn and called out a Dugtrio without a word. Pele shifted a bit eyeing her new opponent carefully shifting on her hooves. Dugtrio disappeared into the ground earning a muttered curse and Vali called out, "Pele, Magnitude!"

Vali would likely need to use Elrond to defeat this one, but she couldn't recall Pele just yet. She needed to weaken Dugtrio as much as possible before then to ensure Elrond would be able to battle long enough to be able to use Grass Knot against Giovanni's heavier pokemon. She'd spoken to the rest of her pokemon about this strategy and they'd all agreed to it though Elrond had resisted a bit not believing that he could be the lynch pin. It had taken awhile, but he'd eventually agreed to it with the assurance that she'd pick one of the others instead if they were better suited for the battle. This was going to be difficult, the grin on her lips grew just a bit larger knowing that a great battle was ahead of them.

Dugtrio popped out of the earth close to Pele with a trio of surprised squeaks though didn't seem to be hurt which was slightly irritating given that Magnitude got stronger with every use. It released a Tri-Attack which was one of the moves that they hadn't encountered before since the attack wasn't exactly common. Pele created a shield of earth using Earth Power just as the beams of the Tri-Attack struck causing a minor explosion. The electrical and fire attacks burned the earthen shield while the ice attack coated the area it had hit in a thick coating of frost that looked exactly like ice in the center. Definitely not something Pele needed to be hit by, Vali called out, "Heat Wave!"

Pele's body began releasing waves of heat hot enough to cause sweat to break out on Vali's skin even from this distance. It was definitely one of Pele's strongest attacks that would get even stronger the more she used it. Dugtrio hid beneath the ground with each head releasing a barely heard squeal and Pele used Magnitude again. When Dugtrio reappeared, it appeared close to Pele and used Sucker Punch. The fist of blackish purple energy that appeared slammed into Pele's chest sending her skidding backwards with a sound of surprised pain. Pele released a Flamethrower on impulse earning a squeal of pain and a rapid retreat into the ground by Dugtrio which started up a game of wack-a-mole causing damage to both pokemon. Both pokemon doing their best, Dugtrio dodging Pele's attacks as best it could while Pele did her best to withstand the ground-types attacks.

At the end of the little game, Pele was stubbornly releasing an almost constant Flamethrower that was slowly beginning to splutter. Dugtrio was ducking the stream of flames in an attempt to attack Pele up close and personal. Pele's heavily bruised and scratched form was trembling with exhaustion making Vali grimace a bit. Pele was reaching her limit, but had done quite a bit of damage to Dugtrio in return. Pele stopped the stream of flames in order to use Toxic on Dugtrio up close earning a choked squeal from the three heads that began to gag. Huh, Balto must've taught her that tactic. She grinned a bit since it meant Dugtrio was a on a time-limit. Dugtrio retaliated with another Sucker Punch that sent Pele stumbling back. Pele tottered a bit before collapsing into unconsciousness prompting her to return the Numel as the referee made the call, "Numel is unable to battle."

Vali called out Elrond who's nose twitched as he appeared and she caught sight of Giovanni's surprised expression. Clearly he hadn't been expecting an Alolan Raichu, she smiled while calling out, "Elrond, Pele beat a Rhyhorn and did a lot of damage to that Dugtrio. Let's make sure to beat this one for her."

Elrond nodded eyeing Dugtrio warily, " _Psychic and Iron-tail should do it, right?"_

Vali hummed in agreement and Elrond started off the battle by pulling Dugtrio plus a large chunk of earth out of the ground. He proceeded to hit Dugtrio with Iron Tail making sure to dodge any attacks the panicking creature shot off. Dugtrio finally used Sucker Punch breaking out of Elrond's psychic hold causing it to fall back towards the ground. Elrond didn't try to grab Dugtrio, but hit it with another Iron Tail speeding up it's fall towards the ground. Dugtrio slammed into the ground harshly with a sharp echoing crack. Elrond picked Dugtrio up again and hit it with another Iron Tail knocking the mole pokemon out.

Giovanni returned it and released a Golem. Vali grinned a bit, "Elrond, you know what to do."

Elrond nodded and zoomed across the field scattering seeds around the battlefield with quite a few landing in the cracks within Golem's plated armor. Elrond gathered the seeds from the fruits he'd eaten alongside a lot of grass seeds. Thankfully any kind of seed would work, the grass-type energy created for Grass Knot transformed them into Grass Knot seeds that would grow as directed by the user. It had taken time for Elrond to figure out how to keep from activating all the seeds when using Grass Knot and despite not having the ability to perfectly control it, he was able to use it in battle without much trouble. Which they'd tested via trainer battles, Elrond had really developed a liking for the move since it gave him a chance to use the heavy weight of his larger opponents against them.

Elrond activated Grass Knot as Golem made a move to use Take Down. Glowing green vines shot from the ground and wrapped around Golem tightly sending it stumbling, the vines snapped at the megaton pokemon's hard shell. Golem let out a grunt and glared at Elrond as it struggled to get up. Elrond raced over and hit it with Iron Tail earning a shout of pain. Golem fought against the Grass Knot vines managing to snap a few and threw a Mega Punch at Elrond. Elrond floated out of reach before speeding back to hit Golem with another Iron Tail. Golem broke free of the Grass Knot vines which left heavy grooves on the megaton pokemon's hard shell and bleeding scratches where the vines had been. A dark brownish grey aura surrounded Golem as it punched the ground. The aura shifted and slipped down Golem's arm into the ground. Frowning a bit, Vali looked around the ground carefully before spotting a flash above the field.

Looking up, Vali saw stones forming and inwardly cursed as she shouted, "Elrond, Rock Slide. Evasive maneuvers!"

Elrond's eyes widened before he quickly began speeding around the battlefield dodging the falling stones. Rock Slide was an annoying move especially in a hand of a well trained pokemon. It took stones from the ground and pretty much teleported them above the the battlefield before allowing gravity to take over. It was a dangerous move for any pokemon outside of a rock type. Even with a type advantage, the move could knock out any pokemon if they were hit hard enough. Golem used the time Elrond was dodging the falling rocks to use Defense Curl and Dig. Elrond frowned as he moved to float high above the battlefield, " _This is going to be annoying, isn't it?"_

 _'_ Can't you use Grass Knot below ground?' Vali asked searching the battlefield for Golem.

" _Yes, but not if I can't figure out where my opponent is,"_ Elrond sounded exasperated, " _I'm having trouble sensing the rock heap's mind. Perhaps you should call out Celina, she has speed and the ability to dodge any attacks Golem would be able to send towards her,"_

'She also has long-range moves that will actually work on it,' Vali agreed as she laid a hand on her ball belt, 'You can use Grass Knot more, right?'

 _"So long as the seeds aren't destroyed, I won't have any problem,"_ Elrond replied as he floated over to her.

'Thank you for your help, Elrond. I'll call you out again soon,' Vali told him as she pulled out his pokeball and returned him before releasing Celina, "Celina, we've got a Golem. It's underground, so be ready. When it reappears, I want you to hit it as hard as possible,"

Celina nodded and took off into the air already beginning to use Feather Dance to provide a cover for herself. When Golem popped out of the field, it looked around in confusion at the feathers falling from the air and the lack of a visible opponent. Celina dove down on silent wings before slamming a Steel Wing into it's face sending Golem skidding back with an alarmed cry. Celina shot off a Twister which sent Golem off balance and further scattered the Grass Knot seeds. Golem landed on its back and Celina dove forward with a Steel Wing before backing off quickly which proved to be a good idea as Golem's fist was suddenly crackling with lightning as the megaton pokemon took a swing at Celina. As Golem began trying to get to its feet, Celina appeared through the feathers above it and lashed out with Air Slash.

The attack struck Golem sending its already off balanced body tumbling. The blades of Air Slash carved a heavy fissure into Golem's chest and a deep scratch where the top edge had managed to hit the pokemon's touch skin. Golem let out a grinding groan as it hit the ground, but managed to bounce back enough to stand on its own two feet. It glared up at Celina and used Rock Slide again in order to cover up its return into the earth. Celina dodged the falling rocks with some ease and added another Feather Dance into the mix. When Golem reappeared, Celina was already heading towards it with another Steel Wing though this time going in from behind.

Golem seemed to anticipate the attack and turned towards Celina. But strangely enough, the megaton pokemon made no move to attack. It wasn't until Vali saw the light leaking from beneath the green plates of its armor that she realized what Golem was doing. She shouted, "Celina, get out of there!"

Celina's eyes widened and she began to pull back clearly realizing the danger she was in. But it wasn't fast enough, Golem self-destructed before Celina could fully pull away. When the dust cloud cleared from the attack, it revealed both pokemon unconscious with Celina covered in burns and Golem laying on the ground with heavily cracked plates. Vali returned Celina feeling rather shaky and whispered an apology for not seeing what Golem had been planning sooner. She sent out Elrond as Giovanni returned his fallen Golem. Elrond looked at her before wincing as his mind connected with hers, _"Ouch. It looks like she'll be spending at least a few days in the pokemon center."_

Vali nodded while swallowing heavily feeling a bit upset, 'Elrond, we need to,' She shook her head, 'We have to win this. For Pele and Celina.'

 _"We will,"_ Elrond's side of the connection glowed with determination.

Giovanni sent out a Rhydon that roared as it appeared on the field. Its horn spun and crackled with electricity as it glared at Elrond who floated in front of Vali. She grimaced a bit noting that it was larger than the Rhydon she'd seen at Professor Oak's lab. Elrond let out a slightly shaky breath as he began floating around the field and she murmured down the connection, 'It weighs a lot, Elrond. Use Grass Knot and Iron Tail as much as possible. I'll figure out who to send out next."

It would likely be Arwen since there was a Nidoking/Nidoqueen waiting in the wings that would require more strength than the Ponyta currently had. Vali took a deep breath to calm herself as the Rhydon heaved a heavy rock from the ground and threw it towards Elrond at a rather impressive speed. Elrond dodged the Rock Blast aimed at him and the second stone that followed the first. He got close enough that Rhydon rushed forward with its entire body rotating in a drill like motion. Levitating upwards, he avoided the attack before activating Grass Knot once Rhydon slowed down looking confusion. Rhydon crashed onto the ground with a roar of surprise as green vines wrapped around its body and grunted in not quite pain as the vines began to squeeze down. Elrond slammed an Iron Tail into Rhydon's thick skull wanting to knock it out before the drill pokemon became an actual problem. He managed to strike in the same spot twice earning a grunt of actual pain, but that only seemed to piss Rhydon off. With a loud ripping sound, Rhydon freed one of its arms from the Grass Knot vines and slammed its paw down.

A large spire of rock shot out of the ground right by Elrond and he barely managed to avoid being impaled by it. A long jagged scratch sat on Elrond's side and began to bleed as he floated away from Rhydon. Vali felt his pain though thankfully it wasn't too bad and did her best to help numb it as Elrond mutter, " _Ouch."_

 _'_ Can you keep going or do you want to tag out?' Vali asked as Rhydon ripped at the rest of the vines and created more rock spires around itself.

Elrond hesitated before nodding, " _Yes, but call me out if..."_

'I will,' Vali returned Elrond and called out Arwen who looked at the battlefield curiously, "Arwen, don't get hit and make sure to hit as hard as possible when attacking,"

Arwen nodded and took off at a swift canter toward Rhydon who'd managed to free itself from a majority of the Grass Knot vines. Rhydon paused and snorted as it caught sight of Arwen. Arwen stamped a hoof onto the ground when she stopped in front of Rhydon and reared her head back before spitting out a large amount of Toxic that splattered across Rhydon's chest and neck. Rhydon jerked back a bit before grunting and lashing out with Hammer Arm. Arwen danced out of the way and sent more Toxic at Rhydon which surprised Vali since her pokemon rarely used the move more than once a battle. Though this meant Arwen would need a rather heavy mixture of berries and vitamins to make up for what she was using for Toxic, she was confused about why Arwen was using so much of it though.

Arwen revealed why when she slammed into Rhydon using Flame Wheel burning the Toxic coating Rhydon's body. Given that most of it was on Rhydon's front, the poison filled smoke entered his lungs during the startled grunt that left him and would continue to do so until the smoke stopped. For all that fire was fairly ineffective against the Rhyhorn-line, the poison laded smoke made up for it since the Rhyhorn-line didn't have much of a defense against air-born poisons as they did ingested ones. It would also begin circulating the drill pokemon's system faster. Smiling a bit, Vali shouted, "Keep it up, Arwen. You can do it!"

If Arwen kept on doing that strategy and increasing the poison filling Rhydon's body, she might just be able to win this battle without needing to bring Elrond out again. Arwen used High Horsepower actually managing to off balance Rhydon a bit before she began to race around the battlefield. Rhydon began to attack her with Rock Blast and Arwen dodged it letting out mocking neighs. Vali's lips twitched at the fact Arwen was doing her best to piss of Rhydon and get it moving to help circulate the poison it had inhaled. Rhydon let out a roar of frustration and launched into Drill Run when Arwen got close. Arwen spat out Toxic again as she dodged the attack making Rhydon falter and roar in pain as the gooey mess hit its eyes. Well that was one way to severely piss off Rhydon, she mused as Rhydon scraped at its eyes to wipe away the poison.

Arwen kept up annoying the hell out of Rhydon and abusing her natural speed as much as possible. Rhydon made it a bit more difficult when it began use Stone Edge more frequently eating up the clear ground around the battlefield. Arwen's body became scratched up as she worked on poisoning and annoying Rhydon into moving around. Had it not been for the fact Solar Beam drained Arwen to the point she could only use it once during a battle, she would probably be using that as well. Only Balto had been able to use it more than once during a battle without being drained, it was probably due to him being a fully evolved pokemon.

Rhydon suddenly let out a roar and stamped his foot down causing the ground to shake. Vali swore under her breath as the Earthquake tore up the field. Arwen ended up slamming into one of the many spires of Stone Edge Rhydon created over the course of battle. Arwen let out a loud shriek of pain as she hit the spire harshly and the fire-type master-in-trainer knew her side was probably badly bruised. Arwen shakily stood up as the tremors ceased and Rhydon began making its way across the battlefield towards her. Arwen's body pulsed red hot for a moment before a miniature sun exploded from her body towards the ceiling sending scorching heat down towards the field. Arwen began charging up for Solar Beam as Rhydon rushed towards her. As Rhydon reached Arwen, she used Solar Beam at point blank range causing a minor explosion that sent dust everywhere as Rhydon released a loud roar of pain.

Arwen flew out of the dust cloud before it could dissipate and hit the wall beside Vali's trainer box. Arwen landed on the ground with a thump. Arwen stayed still breathing heavily for a few moments before attempting to get up. Vali grabbed Arwen's pokeball calling out, "Arwen," Arwen looked towards her trembling as her legs gave out, "You've done enough. It's time to rest, okay?" Arwen nodded and passed out, "Thank you for your help, My Friend," She returned Arwen before releasing Elrond, "Ready?"

 _"As I'll ever be,"_ Elrond glared at Rhydon as the cloud of dust settled.

'Grass Knot as strong as possible,' Vali ordered as Rhydon lightly touched the heavy burns and cracks on its chest plates where the Solar Beam had hit it, 'Hit its chest plate with Iron Tail hard. Double Team and Psychic, use the broken rocks against it. Annoy it, the poison Arwen managed to dose it with is whittling away its health,'

 _"Noted,"_ Elrond nodded to her before taking off to put her plan into action.

Even at less than a full charge, Solar Beam was still powerful enough to cause deep gouges in Rhydon's hard chest. They'd definitely be working on it as much as possible for the Conference, but that was for later. Elrond activated Grass Knot and there was a tell-tale difference in the vines. They glowed a deeper more vibrant green and forced Rhydon to be still even as it struggled against them. Based on the underlining fury flowing from Elrond, the anger at Arwen's defeat was pushing him to new heights. Vali could just barely make out the psychic energy that Elrond was using to help bolster the vines currently pinning Rhydon down. Smiling a bit, she sent her approval to Elrond, but said nothing as he didn't need to be distracted.

Rhydon roared in surprised pain as Elrond's Iron Tail slammed into its chest with more force than before. Elrond continued to batter Rhydon with Iron Tail until the drill pokemon finally managed to free itself from the vines. Elrond created copies of himself as the loose stones around the field rose into the air. They slammed into Rhydon's chest as the copies of Elrond raced around the field. Rhydon batted away the stones turning to avoid the onslaught and summoning more Stone Edge spires. Elrond slammed another Iron Tail into Rhydon this time right across the drill pokemon's horn earning a loud roar of surprise as it stumbled backward. When it raised a paw to its horn, Elrond slammed an Iron Tail into its chest.

Elrond kept up his battering of Rhydon until the drill pokemon fell unconscious when a particularly hard Iron Tail cracked and broke off a piece of its drill causing a stream of blood to splatter out. Giovanni returned Rhydon as Elrond panted roughly glaring at the gym leader. Giovanni spoke for the first as he fingered a black and gold ultra ball, "This is a surprise, it's rare that first year trainers come up against me much less force me down to a single pokemon. Even more surprising is your use of fire-types and pokemon without any true advantage, you're an interesting child, Miss Potter-Black."

"So I've been told," Vali replied as Elrond floated back over to her side of the field and settled down on a part of the ground that had surprisingly stayed intact despite the various attacks that had been used.

"Tell me," Giovanni lifted the pokeball up, "What do you plan to do? What is your goal in all of this?"

"Become a fire-type Master and an Elite Four member," Vali answered as she laid a hand on Balto's pokeball.

Giovanni's lips twitched, "I see," He released a Nidoking that roared as it appeared, "Let's see how you do against my Nidoking."

Vali swallowed as her ears rang with Nidoking's roar which seemed to reverberate through her skull. Nidoking lowered his head and glowered at Elrond with baleful purplish black eyes. Elrond showed no outward sign of nervousness, but it radiated across their connection. This pokemon, it was on a diffrent level than the ones Giovanni had already sent out. She focused on Elrond, 'Elrond, do whatever you can.'

 _"I will,"_ Elrond rose up with a determined glare, " _For the others, I will not back down. For Pele, Celina, and Arwen, I'll fight,"_

Elrond's cheeks sparked wildly and he rushed forward creating a slew of Double Team copies. They raced around the field in confusing patterns hiding the real Elrond who began to use Grass Knot. Nidoking began ripping at the vines immediately with the same ease one would tear through tissue paper. Nidoking eyed the copies in distaste and used a wide-spray Poison Sting to get rid of them. The real Elrond winced as the needles began pumping him full of their poison and used Psychic to pull them out. Inwardly wincing at the fact they were on a time limit, Vali called out, "Elrond."

 _"I'll be fine,"_ Elrond created more copies and continued with whatever plan he currently had.

Vali nodded slowly and pushed as much mental strength down the connection as she could. Elrond replaced the vines Nidoking had torn apart and strengthened them. He used much the same strategy as with Rhydon though there was a lot less fury involved. Nidoking bore the attacks with ease managing to batter away Elrond a few times. Elrond kept up the attacks and even used Electro Ball though it barely did any damage. The fact it had done damage in the first place came from the poison leaking from Nidoking's spines which also showed that the drill pokemon had poison point as his ability. Which would mean they'd need to keep him at a distance, she was thankful that Balto had a lot of long and mid-range attacks.

Elrond began to falter as his body trembled from the poison coursing through his veins. Ears dipping and tail beginning to tilt, Elrond panted harshly as he struck at Nidoking again with Iron Tail. He was too slow on getting away and Nidoking hit him with a Fire Punch. Elrond went flying backwards and hit the ground harshly. Nidoking stomped on the ground and a fist of earth slammed into Elrond's body sending him flying again. Elrond barely managed to stop himself from hitting the wall and used Grass Knot again though Nidoking easily shredded the vines and sent a Shadow Ball towards Elrond. Barely managing to dodge it, Elrond used Thunder which finally earned a sound of pain from Nidoking.

The electricity burning away the poison even as it sank into Nidoking's hard purple hide through the poison glands and playing merry hell on the beast's nerves. Elrond kept up the attack as Nidoking roared in pain though it slowly petered out as exhaustion began to take hold. When it finally stopped, Nidoking was left twitching from the electricity running through his body and glared at Elrond with that could only be hate. Nidoking sent a Shadow Ball towards Elrond that was bigger than the previous one. And too tired to dodge, Elrond was hit by the Shadow Ball and sent flying again. Vali's eyes widened when the connection between them was promptly snapped from the ghostly energy cut Elrond's psychic power off. When Elrond hit the ground, he didn't get up and she returned him.

Releasing Balto, Vali told him, "You're up, Balto. Everyone else is out," Balto nodded with a determined expression and faced Nidoking with a glare, "This one has poison point as an ability, I want you to use long to mid-range attacks only unless there is no other option."

Balto nodded as he and Nidoking eyed one another. Nidoking's lips parted and pulled into an unsettling grin as he lifted up a paw and slammed it against his chest. Balto barked in reply lowering his body with a soft growl as a fiery aura that pulsed outward. The battle began with Balto using Sunny Day and Nidoking replied with Poison Sting. Balto used Protect and the Poison Sting needles bounced off before taking off with Extreme Speed. Fire was spewed across the field as Balto began to attack Nidoking, the drill pokemon began using Earth Power to try and defend against the onslaught.

Balto used Extreme Speed to avoid any attacks Nidoking decided to send towards him and even used it to propel himself upwards during a jump to avoid the Earthquake the drill pokemon used in an attempt to make her partner falter. Balto landed close to Nidoking who began aimed a poison-type covered fist towards him only to stumble back when he used Heat Wave. Nidoking roared in pain as Balto followed up with an up close Flamethrower. Nidoking began to get pissed off as Balto continued to evade any attacks sent towards him and the increasing damage dealt by her partner. With his mounting Fury, Nidoking began using Stomping Tantrum which was a move Vali hadn't encountered before.

As Nidoking began to storm around the field causing further damage to the ground, Balto charged up Hyper Beam and when Nidoking got close enough, he used it. The powerful beam of energy ripped through the air and slammed into Nidoking. Nidoking managed to bear the attack for a few moments before beginning to slide backward until he stumbled and began to go flying backwards. When the power petered out, Nidoking fell to his knees while Balto shuddered as the muscles in his body locked up. Vali winced at the burnt and bleeding wound on Nidoking's chest. Blood dripped rather liberally from the not quite circular burn on Nidoking's chest, a piece of the armor protecting Nidoking's chest had broken off revealing the muscle and poison glands beneath it.

Nidoking stood up with a grunt and began charging towards the frozen form of Balto. Vali bit her bottom lip feeling anxious hoping that Balto would be able to move soon. When Nidoking reached Balto, the drill pokemon used Aqua Tail sending Balto tumbling to the side. Balto managed to move before Nidoking could strike again, but the Aqua Tail had definitely left a mark. Balto burned away the water with Flash Fire, but shifted uncomfortably leading her to wonder how badly Nidoking's tail had damaged his side. The battle continued with Balto ramping up his efforts to avoid Nidoking's attacks. Every so often, Nidoking managed to land an attack making her wince in time with Balto though her partner rarely vocalized any pain.

Finally Balto managed to deal a devastating blow to Nidoking that actually began to force the drill pokemon back, he used Heat Wave then Iron Tail against Nidoking's injured chest. Nidoking stumbled backward with a loud grunt swaying a bit and bringing a paw up to his chest as if to protect it. Balto kept up the attack never letting Nidoking attack back. Balto only backed off when Nidoking used Earth Power allowing the drill pokemon a moment of much needed rest that wasn't going to be enough. Burns decorated Nidoking's form, Nidoking breathed harshly glaring at Balto through drooping eyes.

Nidoking straightened up with a roar and rushed towards Balto. Balto replied with rushing towards Nidoking as Flare Blitz blazed into life. The two clashed with a loud boom sending dust flying everywhere. When it cleared, Balto was standing above Nidoking with a paw on the drill pokemon's chest just below the injury his Hyper Beam caused. Nidoking stared up at Balto who peered down at him and an understanding seemed to pass between them before the drill pokemon closed his eyes. The referee announced Vali's win as Balto raced across the field to reach her. Vali carefully wrapped her arms around Balto's neck when he reached her and hugged him, "You did it, Balto. We won. We won our last Gym Battle."

Balto let out a low rumble of agreement and leaned against her. Someone approached them causing the two to pull apart and they found a gym trainer walking forward holding a box. The gym trainer glanced at Balto radiating nervousness, "Trainer Valkyrie, your gym badge. The Earth Badge."

Vali took the badge out of the box, "Thank you."

"Gym Leader Giovanni congratulates you on your win," The gym trainer told her.

* * *

Zaria grinned as she threw an arm around Vali's shoulders, "That was an awesome battle, Vali. My heart was racing the whole time."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it, Zaria," Vali looked up from her badge to smile at Zaria.

Zaria tightened her arm for a moment as they walked to the pokemon center, "So what now?"

Vali put her badge into the case for it, "I'm going to register for the Conference after getting everyone seen to. After Steven's had his battle, I'm going to head back to Pallet Town. My pokemon are going to have a week to rest then we'll buckle down on training our butts off for the Conference."

"You'll be working with Professor Oak during that time, won't you?" Steven asked earning a nod, "That'll be interesting,"

Zaria let out a groan, "It's no fair that you're going to be training with someone like Professor Oak."

"I'm probably not going to be training with him a lot," Vali replied as Zaria let go of her, "He's going to be busy and just give me a little advice,"

"Still," Zaria shook her head, "You're still going to have a big advantage over everyone else,"

Vali snorted softly, "Not much, we're going to face people with more experience than us during the tournament, you know? I need every advantage I can get especially since I'm shooting for Elite," They walked into the pokemon center, "I'm going to get my pokemon checked out."

"I'll be going to go spend some time prepping my pokemon," Steven told her and she waved him off.

"I've got to go call my dad," Zaria hugged Vali lightly, "I'll see ya later,"

Zaria headed off and Vali went to wait in line. Nurse Joy smiled at her when she reached the counter, "Hello, Vali. How was the battle?"

"We won," Vali grinned at Nurse Joy as the woman set a tray onto the counter, "It was really tough and Balto was the only one that didn't faint. I'm not sure about how bad the damage was for each of them. Arwen and Elrond definitely need to be checked over thoroughly. Celina got caught in an Self Destruct, but I'm not sure about the amount of damage,"

"I'll give everyone a thorough check over," Nurse Joy promised as Vali placed her pokeballs onto the tray, "Now I assume you want to register for the Conference?"

Vali nodded as Nurse Joy handed the tray to Chansey, "Yes, I figured it be best to do it now."

"Unfortunately, you'll have to wait until two weeks before the Conference," Nurse Joy offered her an apologetic look, "Sorry, Vali,"

Vali sighed a bit having figured something like that would happen, "It's fine, Nurse Joy. I'll have Professor Oak handle the whole thing."

Nurse Joy nodded, "Of course. I'll call you to the front desk once I'm able to figure out what's going on with your pokemon."

"Thanks, Nurse Joy," Vali waved lightly as she headed out of the pokemon center to give her other pokemon the good news.

Excitement coiled through her body, Vali couldn't believe that they'd done it. They'd gotten all eight badges and would be heading to the Indigo Conference.


	19. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997: Work doesn't allow for much time to write, guys. Next chapter will have the League in it, I hope you'll enjoy it. Anyone want to offer up some OCs and pokemon to battle? Requirements at the bottom of the chapter.**

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Words: 18,538

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Chapter 19

* * *

Vali's pokemon would be in Nurse Joy's care for a week at most despite the harsh battles thanks to the fact Nurse Joy was well used to dealing with such injuries as a result of being so close to the last gym in the Indigo League. Balto had suffered the least of her pokemon having some major bruises and muscle strain. Pele had a lot of bruises, but would only need to rest a bit in order to recuperate her lost energy. Celina had gotten away with some broken and cracked bones as well as some burned off feathers. Arwen had a sprained ankle, but the worst injury on top of her various bruises were her heavily bruised/cracked ribs. On top of wearing himself out and suffering from quite a few bruises alongside a case of acute poisoning, Elrond had completely exhausted his electrical storage to shock Nidoking which would take upwards to a month to completely replenish though this would also increase said storage which wasn't too bad.

Balto would be released the next day alongside Pele since both required the least amount of care. Celina and Arwen would be staying for around five days while Elrond would be released two days afterward. Elrond had somehow managed to get through the battle without a broken bone, but the poison from Nidoking wasn't something they could play around with. But none of them were in danger of dying which was more than most first year trainers could say if they fought against Giovanni, it was the amount of preparation and the surprising pokemon choices that allowed them to actually win. If there was one thing Vali was truly grateful for, it was the fact that Smaug had been absent for the battle if only because Giovanni would have known how exactly to deal with him and they hadn't quite managed to come up with enough unique strategies to make up for their lake of experience. Of course Smaug wouldn't have taken that well, he'd fight until he fell unconscious to if it meant winning a battle against the odds. While she admired him for his passion and unending well of determination, she would prefer not to see him so deeply injured that moving was impossible with immense amounts of pain.

* * *

Vali walked into the Viridian gym with Vulpix, Eevee, Terra, and Zaria following Steven. They were lead to a seating area to watch the battle and all three of her pokemon looked at their trainer as she said, "I want you three to watch this battle carefully. One day as soon as we're ready, we'll be fighting at this level."

Nods were given with Vulpix actually settling down to focus on the field with an intensity she'd never seen before, Vali felt a grin stretch across her lips knowing that this would be one of the moments that'd shape his future. Zaria grinned as she released Sneasel and Zabbi giving them a similar pep talk before the battle began. When Steven called out Aggron, she focused intently on the battlefield no longer thinking about anything else save to record it using her pokenav.

The battle started off with a bang as Giovanni released a Rhydon who began to use Flamethrower immediately. The Rhydon was a beast of heavy armor and looked as if it was a step away from evolving into a Rhyperior. Definitely a severe step above the one she'd face the day before, Steven was going to be in for a hard battle if this was going to be a running trend with Giovanni's pokemon. Thanks to their training together, Aggron was able to withstand the heat fairly well and shut Rhydon up with a rather harsh Iron Tail to the face. Aggron took any hits that Rhydon dealt out with a grunt and fought back with just as much fury as the drill pokemon. Eventually Rhydon fell to a Heavy Slam though Aggron wasn't that far off, Giovanni recalled it and sent out a Golem.

Each pokemon Giovanni released was a monster above the Nidoking that she'd faced yesterday, they got meaner and bigger with each new pokemon. Aggron fell to Giovanni's Golem who ended it with a powerful Hyper Beam. Steven took it out with Blastoise who fell to the Nidoqueen that Giovanni sent out. Skarmory took Nidoqueen and the Dugtrio that followed it before falling to the Nidoking that appeared after it. Metagross appeared as Nidoking roared his victory and cut off the drill pokemon with a Meteor Mash. Nidoking was good causing heavy scratches across Metagross' armored body, but Metagross was better than him. With their resistance to poison and ability to avoid ground-type attacks, Metagross managed to pull ahead and ended the battle.

Throughout the battle, Vali felt nervous and excited as each blow was exchanged. The speed of the battles was difficult to keep up with and techniques used by each pokemon was on another level. To think that she'd be battling at that level one day left her giddy, she couldn't wait until they reached that level and fight against Steven. At that thought, she decided that one step to her journey would be to battle Steven on a level playing field. When the battle ended, she looked towards Giovanni and saw that he actually looked vaguely pleased by the results, but refrained from coming down to give Steven the badge himself. Zaria spoke with a bright grin, "Holy shit! That was awesome, Steven's going to become a champion for sure."

Vali nodded slowly, "Yeah," She smiled lightly, "It was awesome."

* * *

After dropping off Steven's pokemon, they decided to go out for a lunch to celebrate that Vali and Steven had managed to get all seven badges. As they ate, the trio of trainers discussed their next move in more detail than before. Zaria grinned as she set down her fork, "I'm going to challenge Muller for the Storm badge. Much as I'd like to face Giovanni, I'm not ready for it and my pokemon will need as much time as possible to train for the Conference."

"Muller, isn't he based out of that town two weeks west of here?" Vali asked as she thought about the flying-type gym leader that had only gotten his gym certified a year ago.

"Yeah. Muller's in Cyan Burrows," Zaria confirmed earning a confused look from Steven.

"Cyan Burrows?" Steven asked as he glanced between the two, "What is that?"

"It's one of the many small towns and villages in central Kanto," Vali explained as she put down her fork to reach into her pocket for her pokedex, "Most of them focus on farming or ranching especially since they're settle right on the great plains that run through the middle of Kanto," She pulled up the map and found Cyan Burrows, "Cyan Burrows is famous for one thing despite being a ranchers paradise given how great the area is to raise ranch based pokemon. That thing is their storms," She held out her pokedex to Steven who took it and began reading through the article her pokedex had on it, "Whether its their heavy wind/rain storms in the summer or their ice/snow storms in the winter, Cyan Burrows is the home of storms. A long time ago it is said that the village that once rested there had done something despicable in the eyes of Zapdos and Articuno. To pay for their crimes, the area was cursed with storms,"

"Not Moltres?" Zaria looked a bit surprised likely not having heard about this before.

Vali shook her head with a slight smile as she fed Vulpix some of the meat off of her plate, "Not Moltres, it is the reason that the town wasn't eradicated and has somewhat clear weather during the spring and fall. Of course, it is a story, but you know what they say about stories."

"It's interesting," Steven handed Vali back the pokedex and she put it away to continue eating, "I'll have to look into it a bit more though why would Muller open a gym there?"

"It's his hometown," Vali picked up her fork again and returned to eating, "He came by the lab before his gym was approved since Gym Leaders have to get approval from the regional professor on top of everything else before they're able to get certified,"

Zaria looked a bit surprised while Steven nodded, "Wait, seriously?" The mocha skinned girl looked a little disbelieving at the nods she was given, "But that's not how we do it back in my home region."

"It's diffrent for the regions that don't have ties to the Pokemon League Administration or aren't major regions," Vali shrugged lightly, "Anyway, Muller came to the lab and actually participated in a guest lecture on flying-type pokemon. He was pretty cool and his Pidgeot was awesome. You'll have a tough battle even if you're not going against Giovanni,"

Zaria leaned forward eager to learn anything about the gym leader she'd chosen to go against, "What do you know about him?"

"Other than his Pidgeot, he has a Noctowl, a Skarmory, a Gligar which probably evolved, a Murkrow that probably evolved, and..." Vali tried to remember what the last pokemon was, "Oh! It was a Mandibuzz, from Unova. That was a scary pokemon," She shivered a bit as she remembered its beady eyes and the way it stared at everything save for Muller like they were food, "Of course, he's probably using other pokemon for the gym especially since his Mandibuzz was strong enough to last five minutes against Professor Oak's Charizard,"

Steven looked a bit shocked while Zaria whistled in appreciation, "Man, he's got to have balls. Mandibuzz don't just listen to anyone after all."

"From what I remember, she was his starter. I think he got her from his older brother, but I'm not sure," Vali shook her head lightly, "Muller will probably have some tips for training Murkrow up,"

"I'll talk to him about it when I get a chance," Zaria settled back, "So you're going back to Pallet?"

"Once everyone's out of the pokemon center and okay to travel," Vali looked towards Steven, "You're going to Mount Moon, right?"

Steven picked up his drink, "Not quite, I'll be going to Pewter to meet up with some people then head to Mount Moon."

Zaria looked at Steven in surprise, "You're going to Mount Moon? Off the paths? Dude, you're going to see so many strong pokemon."

"Maybe even find a new one," Steven smiled a bit, "It'll be a lot of fun and good training. I'm looking forward to spending time in the tunnels,"

"You get to keep stuff that you find, right?" Zaria asked looking excited.

"While it depends on what the item is, yes," Steven eyed her carefully as they both wondered why she would be so excited, "Why?"

"Think you might be able to get a Dusk Stone," Zaria told him, "I need one for Murkrow and with how expensive they are, I'm not likely to get one anytime soon,"

"You'd be better off asking for a Moon or Sun Stone," Vali shook her head, "You're going to be hard pressed to find any stones outside of a Moon or Sun Stone in that mountain. You're better off going to Mount Silver for a Dusk Stone. Kanto mostly has Fire, Water, Thunder, Moon, and Sun Stones,"

"Dang it," Zaria muttered looking disappointed.

"If I find one and can take it, I'll see about giving it to you," Steven offered earning a bright grin from the Dark-type master-in-training.

"Awesome!" Zaria cheered, "Thanks, Steven. You're the best,"

* * *

Zaria left not even an hour after their lunch to get a head start on the next leg of her journey. With the coming Conference drawing near, every trainer in Kanto would be making that mad-dash to get their last badge in time to get some form of training in before it hit. Zaria would need to be quick especially if she wanted to get to Cyan Burrows before summer storm season truly set in. The dark-type master-in-training extracted a promise to battle the next time they saw one another though a few limitations would be put in place to ensure that all the participants would be able to fight at top form during the Conference. With that done and a picture by Vali that would be gifted once they met up, the dark-type master-in-training took off.

* * *

After waiting for his pokemon to be cleared by Nurse Joy and making arrangements with those he'd be meeting in Pewter, Steven packed his bags and got ready to leave. Leaving his room in the pokemon center, he walked down the hallway until he'd reached Vali's room. Before he could knock on the door, it opened to reveal Vali with Eevee sitting on her shoulder and Vulpix in her arms. She smiled lightly looking for all the world like this was just another day, but one look in her eyes told a much diffrent story. She didn't want him to leave, but wouldn't say anything despite how much she'd miss him because she understood why he's going. She spoke in a warm tone that belied none of the sadness currently running through her, "Ready to go?"

If he hadn't spent so long traveling with her or knew Vali to the point he did, Steven likely wouldn't have known just how much this was bothering her. It made his heart clench and the desire to stay with her that he'd been fighting surge up. He forced it down with a light smile of his own, "I am."

"We'll walk you to the edge of town," Vali told him as Vulpix gave a soft whine and pleading look at him, "If that's okay,"

Steven reached out and gently ran his fingers over the fire-fox's curls, "I'd like that."

With that said, they headed out of the pokemon center with Steven dropping off his room key. Vali walked beside him and he glanced at her as they ventured through Viridian. He remembered their time together since the first day they'd met back in Pallet Town and the difference between when they last walked this exact path struck a cord in him. It wasn't just seeing the bond between them grow from distant strangers to close friends over the course of their time together. It was just how much they'd both grown from that day. Even if Vali had been the one to grow the most out of them, he'd grown as well and could honestly say that this specific journey had been more than worth it for all the strange and highly emotional moments that had occurred.

Vali spoke pulling him from his thoughts, "It's been awhile since we last walked this path, huh?"

"I was just thinking that," Steven had to chuckle at how closely their thoughts mimicked one another, "It's been a long time. You've grown a lot since then. We both have,"

Vali's smile took a sad turn as her eyes glowed with nostalgia, "Yeah. It was a crazy adventure together, but one that I wouldn't change for the world even with some parts of it being the way they were," She looked ahead of them, "Hey, Steven? We'll send emails and stuff, right?"

"Of course," Steven promised not being able to see them not contacting one another.

"I'm glad," Vali hugged Vulpix closer to her chest, "Just wanted to make sure, I'd prefer not to lose contact,"

Vulpix whined softly and Vali ducked her head to kiss the top of his. Steven noticed that they were at the edge of town and wondered where the time had gone. He slowly stopped walking and Vali looked up from Vulpix. For a brief second, he could see the pain and panic Vali was feeling at the fact they'd be separated. The sadness filled understanding and underlining dread that was probably due to how rare they'd actually be able to contact one another due to how Mount Moon's magnetic field. But it disappeared into a fake happiness that left a foul taste in his mouth, he understood why she was hiding her feelings and was grateful even if it left him unhappy.

Steven spoke as they stood together at the edge of Viridian, "It looks like it's time for me to leave."

"We should let everyone say their goodbyes," Vali offered in a soft tone.

Steven jumped at being able to spend more time with her, "Yeah. That would be a good idea."

They each released their pokemon and Steven found himself strangely distant from the group seemingly just a observer than an active participant. Vali hugged each of his pokemon murmuring her praises for their skills in battle and soft goodbyes. Each of his pokemon nuzzled her even Skarmory who normally didn't tolerate anyone beside him seemed distraught at the fact it was time to say goodbye. Tears shimmered in Vali's eyes, she kept up that gentle smile that seemed to be her go-to to comfort any pokemon that seemed to require it. Never once did she voice her wish for them to stay, the reluctant acceptance radiated off of her in waves.

Vulpix whined and cuddled against each of his pokemon clearly pleading for them to not seperate from the pack they'd been since his birth. Eevee actually nosed each of his pokemon in goodbye. Terra patted each pokemon lightly and chattered at them. Balto rumbled warmly at each of his pokemon and despite being sad, he too was accepting that it was time for their parting. Pele cooed and nosed everyone with a light smile. Celina carefully laid her head on each of his pokemon and crooned at them. Even Skarmory accepted the affection, Aggron, Blastoise, and Cradily giving their own goodbye embraces while being careful of those who were still injured from the battles. Mawile seemed to have decided to just stick to hugging Vali after patting everyone goodbye. Despite being silent to him, Steven knew that Metagross was offering each of those they'd be leaving behind a unique goodbye.

When the pokemon were done, everyone was returned save for Metagross, Balto, Eevee, and Vulpix. Vulpix whined at him and pawed at his leg. Steven bent down and hugged the fox, "I know you don't want us to go, Vulpix. But it isn't going to be forever, we'll see one another again soon."

It took a bit longer for Vulpix to finally seem at least partially mollified. The not-so little fox returned to Vali's side and Balto trotted over to nose him. Steven settled his hand on the fire-types head and stared Balto in the eyes. Balto eventually nodded to him and gave a soft bark that sounded vaguely reprimanding. Metagross translated for him, " _Balto wishes you well, but warns you to keep your promise to his partner. If you do not, he will be very displeased."_

Steven actually felt nervous about that and quickly nodded as he told Vali's second in command, "I'll keep my promise."

Balto looked pleased and licked his cheek earning a grimace. Eevee nodded to him actually looking a bit sad. Steven nodded back in acknowledgement. Vali spoke as a slightly melancholic tone, "Looks like this is it, Steven."

"For now, we'll see each other again soon," Steven surprised Vali with a tight hug that she slowly returned.

Vali trembled a bit, "I can't wait. Just be careful, Mount Moon isn't a normal mountain by any means and you might find yourself in deep trouble if you're not careful."

"I'll be careful," Steven hugged her just a bit harder, "Train hard, Vali. I'd say look after your pokemon, but you always do. So make sure you look after yourself as well, they need you to watch over them after all,"

"I will," Vali sniffed softly.

Eventually, they pulled apart and Steven began walking away. He looked back at Vali and waved. She waved back as Metagross floated almost solemnly beside him. When she was out of sight, he focused on the forest ahead with a heavy feeling in his chest and a stinging in his eyes. Metagross spoke, " _Friend Vali is in a lot of pain. She will miss you greatly, but won't force you to stay. She understands that it is time for your parting no matter how brief it may end up being."_

"I know," Steven hated knowing that he was causing her such pain.

A part of him was surprised by how attached they were to one another, but it wasn't quite surprising. With how long they'd been traveling together and the many adventures they had been apart of, they'd created a close bond. One Steven would do everything possible to ensure would break even with how things were changing. This would be a trial run for when he returned to Hoenn, he decided with as his shoulders straightened and his mouth set into a firm line.

* * *

Vali returned to the pokemon center and checked on the pokemon still in Nurse Joy's care before heading up to her room. When she reached it, the happy and content facade she'd kept up since she woke up this morning broke. Releasing her pokemon almost absentmindedly, she laid down on her bed with watery eyes as everyone got settled. She had known it was coming even from the first day of her journey, so hadn't thought it'd be so bad especially with how little parting with Vivian or Lance had bothered her. But she knew Steven far better than Lance or Zaria, how could she not after traveling with Steven for so long and becoming close friends? It actually hurt as much as knowing that she'd likely never see Hermione and Ron again. Unlike with Hermione and Ron, she would be seeing Steven again whether a bit before the Conference or during it.

For now, Vali would let herself come to terms with the fact she wouldn't be traveling with Steven anymore and then she'd focus on creating a training plan for her pokemon.

* * *

Four days after Steven left Viridian saw Vali leaving the city as well in the opposite direction, the fire-type master-in-training had a rather basic training plan in mind which would be supplemented and changed as time went on. Rather than speed back to Pallet Town with a majority of her pokemon healing from the Gym Battle, she walked at an almost leisurely pace taking photos and bonding with her pokemon. Terra and Vulpix both ended up battling some of the trainers they ended up meeting on the road. Despite the end of this season of the Kanto Gym Circuit approaching, a lot of trainers were still just starting out due to their birthdays falling at this time of year. Many didn't mind the fact that they'd likely only have a month and a half before the gyms closed down all official battles until a month after the Indigo Conference, they were all eager to start their 'greatest adventure' and wanting a taste of just how hard they'd need to work during the off season.

Despite being a young pokemon, Vulpix took to battling like a Magikarp to water. Despite losing his first battle against a rather quick-witted Rattata, Vulpix didn't let it bring him down for long and threw himself into training with new fervor and won his second battle against a Pidgey. He watched Terra's battles and listened carefully to Balto whenever the Arcanine spoke to him during their rest times. Each day he improved at a rather steady rate showing just how diffrent pokemon were from humans, he still lost half the time, but every battle seemed to help him become better regardless of how it ended. But his growth didn't really hit her until Vulpix's second tail began growing in, she realized just how much he'd grown since that tiny fox hatched from his egg.

* * *

Vulpix whined as he tripped on his own paws once again and landed on the ground. He looked at Vali and she scooped him up with a sympathetic smile. Ever since his second tail began growing in, Vulpix had been a ball of discomfort who had trouble keeping his balance leading her to pulling him from battles. He laid his head on her shoulder whining again and she shushed him gently, "I know it aches horribly, Vulpix. Once we get to Pallet Town, we'll get Professor Oak's help, okay?"

Vulpix let out a low huff and Vali began humming since it usually helped him settle down. Pallet Town came into sight a few minutes later and she headed towards the lab rather than home. While all she really wanted was a shower and to sit down on something softer than the ground, she had to take care of her pokemon first. The walk over to Professor Oak's lab took thirty minutes at an easy walk though the stairs were a little annoying. Entering the lab, she found the aids in a frenzy that seemed even worse than usual which made her slightly reluctant to bother them. Not enough to keep her from waving down one, she did need to get her pokemon taken care of and check in with Professor Oak so he could make a note in the system that she was in Pallet Town.

One of the aids, Justin, hurried over when he saw Vali waving at him, "Hey, Vali. No Steven."

Vali shook her head with a slightly sad smile, "He went to Mount Moon. Is Professor Oak in?"

"Yeah, I'll lead you to him," Justin said with a sheepish grin, "We're a bit busy today,"

"Busier than usual," Vali noted as Vulpix looked around curiously, "Big project?"

"The League accepted Professor Oak's joint proposal with Bill," Justin looked really happy and Vali couldn't blame him since the whole transfer system was going to upgraded into the next generation, "The professor is over the moon and everyone is doing their best to help out as much as possible. Miss Delia is actually here helping to take care of the pokemon since everyone is so busy,"

"What's the Professor doing?" Vali asked curiously making a note to find Delia once she got done with Professor Oak.

Justin was led Vali to a door and when it shut behind them, the sheer volume coming from the main lab dropped down severely. Justin let out a low chuckle, "You know the professor, he loves it when new trainers are starting out and always takes a hands on approach though this time he's having Delia help him since there was a bigger than normal group."

"How many?" Any group larger than four was considered abnormal after all.

"Ten," Justin grinned at her soft whistle, "All but three of them are from out of town. Two came from Viridian, the local ranch that usually supplies pokemon all got hit with a dose of the pokeflu. Four came from that one village ten miles west of Pallet. The final one came from Johto and apparently is getting a special pokemon straight from the Saffron City gym,"

Vali's eyes widened, "Seriously? What did the kid do to get Sabrina's attention?"

"Will is apparently a pretty powerful psychic," Justin explained shaking his head, "Not at the same level as Sabrina, but powerful enough to warrant her attention,"

"I'll have to meet the kid then," Vali decided wanting to see just what kind of person managed to get Sabrina's attention like she had.

Justin looked a little amused, but said nothing as he opened the door to where Professor Oak usually gave people their starters when a larger group came along. Vali walked inside and saw many eager faces peering at the Professor as he explained how to use the Pokedex. Smiling at Delia when the woman looked up from the pokeballs she was prepping for everyone, she went to lean back against the wall not far against the door. Setting Vulpix down, she kept him from running over to Delia with a simple tap on the head that signaled his need to stay with her. After everyone registered their information into the pokedex, Professor Oak began handing out pokemon. Since the regular Kanto three were usually only given out to a certain number of trainers that Professor Oak knew would take care of them without a doubt, the group starting out wouldn't be able to get them.

The three kids from Pallet Town got a Exeggcute, Meowth, and Poliwag. The two from Viridian were gifted a Geodude and a Sandshrew. The four kids from that village were given a male Nidoran, a female Nidoran, a Bellsprout, and a Magnemite. The boy that had apparently gotten Sabrina's attention was given an Abra which was stared at by the Natu sitting on the boy's shoulder. After being given their pokemon, the newly minted trainers were led out of the door by Delia and Vali stood up properly as the last trainer, Will, paused at the door. He looked towards her with light purple-blue eyes as a slightly clumsy tendril touched her mental shields. Narrowing her eyes, she gently pushed back adding just the slightest bit of Elrond's electrical presence into it as a reprimand. With a gasp, Will's hand flew to his forehead and he stared at her with wide eyes.

Delia ushered him out of the room throwing a confused and concerned look at Vali. Professor Oak let out a soft chuckle, "Will is an inquisitive young man, isn't he?"

"How old is he?" The purple haired boy had been tall and lanky in a way that Ron had been becoming.

"He's actually fourteen almost fifteen," Professor Oak smiled a bit, "His parents held him back on the advice of Sabrina due to his psychic abilities needing some serious training, he'll be going straight to Saffron once Sabrina arrives since he's still got more training ahead of him,"

"It sucks that he's not actually going to be able to travel yet," Vali offered feeling less annoyed with the boy being a bit rude for the mental touch, "So Sabrina's coming to Pallet?"

"In an hour," Professor Oak headed over to the computer, "I assume you're here to check in?"

"Yup," Vali took out her pokedex, "I also need everyone to get a check up,"

"I can do that," Professor Oak took her pokedex and began using the computer, "Anything else?"

"Do you know how I can help, Vulpix?" Vali asked as she picked Vulpix up again, "His second tail is coming in which has been throwing his balance off quite a bit and it's hurting,"

Professor Oak hummed lightly, "I might be able to help, but there isn't much we can do. Much like with new teeth, a pokemon's new scales or in this case, tails, can't really be helped save for something to numb any pain. One thing I'd recommend is boiling water and soak a cloth in it before applying the cloth to Vulpix's lower spine. Had he not been a fire-type or you had an ice-type, I'd suggest using a cold compress," Vali nodded as Vulpix shifted to settle more comfortably in her arms, "Other than that, you could have Balto, Smaug, and Arwen use their fire-type attacks around him. They'll boost his inner flame promoting a faster growth rate which will ensure his pain is gone sooner rather than later."

"Can we spend time in the fire-type area?" Vali requested as she made a few mental adjustments to her plans, "Since it sounds like that would make it easier on Vulpix,"

"I'll make arrangements so long as you're able to help out here while in Pallet," Professor Oak replied as he hooked her dex up to the computer, "I'll also be offering tips and might supervise some training if I'm able to find the time,"

"Sounds like a plan," Vali watched as the data inside her dex was uploaded into Professor Oak's servers, "So you're going to be working with Bill?"

"Yes," Professor Oak grinned a bit, "Thanks to your suggestion, we were able to put together a proposal that the League was happy to accept. We'll need to keep them informed, but that's a small price to pay considering the fact we'll be revitalizing the pokemon transfer system,"

"I'm glad that I was able to help," Vali couldn't wait for them to figure things out, "By the way, would you check on my Houndour egg? I've been having Balto, Arwen, and Vulpix use their fire-type attacks around it not to mention have them curl around it," Arwen tended to tuck the egg underneath her head while Balto and Vulpix curled around it when laying down, "I'm curious as to how it's developing and when it'll hatch,"

"No problem, we can go check on it now," Professor Oak said as he typed on the computer after it beeped and detached her pokedex from the computer before handing it back.

Leaving the room after Professor Oak finished with the computer and she'd picked up her backpack, they headed to a nearby room where they'd be checking out her Houndour egg. Vali set down Vulpix and put her bag next to him on the floor. Unzipping it as Professor Oak got everything ready, she unlaced the ropes she'd been using to keep the incubator stable during travel and pulled it out. The Houndour egg's shell was a glossy black with a few wisps of fiery crimson and splotches of bright pearly white. Setting the incubator down, she carefully opened it and took the egg out. Cradling it gently against her chest, she hummed softly at the gentle pulse of energy and gentle warmth radiating off of it.

Professor Oak took the egg from her when she walked over to him and set it into the machine set up in the middle of the room. He began fiddling with the monitor and scanners before moving back to the computer once he was satisfied. Vali picked up Vulpix who was looking at the machine in confusion, "He's checking on our newest pack-mate, Vulpix," Vulpix tilted his head and gave her a confused look, "That machine lets him get a look inside the egg, it lets those use the machine check on the pokemon inside. It tells us if the little one inside is healthy and if not, we're able to figure out what we need to do in order to change that," Vulpix looked back towards the machine in interest, "You've been in that machine before when you were an egg too," Vulpix's ears twitched and he barked giving her a surprised look, "Mhmm, you were."

Professor Oak let out a soft chuckle, "It's true, Vulpix. Now, Vali," Vali and Vulpix focused on the Professor, "Houndour is doing very well and should hatch in about two weeks though that's just a general time-frame," Vali's eyes widened as she realized just how soon her family would be growing again, "Just keep a close eye on the egg, we'll know more once it begins to move," She nodded feeling a bit anxious, "Now would you like to find out Houndour's gender?"

"Yes, Professor," Vali and Vulpix both gave the Professor matching looks of eagerness earning a bright smile.

Professor Oak turned back to the computer screen and looked it over, "It looks like you'll be having a female Houndour."

Vali squealed and hugged Vulpix a bit tighter, "Vulpix, it looks like we're going to have a little sister."

* * *

After getting her egg checked out, Vali had given her pokemon to Professor Oak for a much needed check up before going to find Delia. She was directed to one of the lounges set up in the lab for visiting trainers waiting for their pokemon to get checked out or they'd had a meeting with Professor Oak. Alakazam was the one to direct her after welcoming the fire-type master in training home. Entering the room, she found Delia sitting on one of the couches with Will sitting on another. The psychic was sitting with his Natu and new Abra seemingly having a three-way staring contest. It was something she'd seen at the Saffron City gym quite often during her time there. In order to forge a deeper connection with their pokemon, a psychic would connect their minds to each of the pokemon and share memories.

Delia perked up when Vali opened the door and beamed at her, "Vali, welcome home!"

Some of the tension in Vali's body eased at those words, she smiled warmly back at Delia setting down her bag by the couch closest to the door, "It's good to be home."

Delia stood up and quickly pulled Vali into a tight hug. She hugged Delia back as the woman said, "We're going to have a big dinner tomorrow, Vali. To celebrate that you're all back home safe and sound, I'm so glad you're back."

Vali began telling Delia about everything that had happened in Viridian from seeing Zaria again to Steven leaving for Mount Moon. Delia listened with a patient smile and offered a few questions though mainly allowed her to talk. One of Professor Oak's aid's dropped off the pokemon she'd been having checked over and Vulpix immediately released himself followed by Eevee and Elrond who both focused on the unfamiliar beings in the room. Will released a harsh breath and shook his head lightly. Abra shifted a bit reaching up a clawed paw to its head while Natu fluttered around on the table a bit. All three focused on Elrond who stared at them silently. Will grinned brightly, "Oh, an Alolan Raichu! You must Valkyrie Potter-Black. Lady Sabrina told me about you."

Elrond's eyes widened and he turned to her. Vali nodded as she gestured for Elrond to settle beside her on the couch with Eevee climbing onto the backrest of the couch, "I am. That was very rude of you back in the Starter room, I would think Sabrina had taught you to be more polite."

Will flushed at that and ducked his head, "You're right. She did teach me better than that and I'm very sorry. I was just eager," He gave her a sheepish smile looking up through his bangs, "Lady Sabrina spoke of you quite often during the recent month making quite curious. The unique feel of your mental shields and their strength just begged for me to investigate. It's rare that I meet people outside of psychics like this," Natu bounced a bit fluttering to get onto Will's shoulder, "It doesn't excuse my actions."

Elrond let out a soft growl looking furious and Will winced which meant the Raichu was probably reading him the riot act. Vali wrapped an arm around Elrond, "Ease up, Elrond. He was simply curious."

Elrond turn his head to give Vali a look, " _And let him get away with it?"_

Vali shook her head, "Sabrina will likely punish him."

"You're correct, Vali," Sabrina spoke from the corner of the room as Will sank into his chair with a light blush coating his cheeks, "Will, we will speak later,"

Vali jolted alongside Eevee and Vulpix while Elrond directed a pleased look towards the Gym Leader. Clearly someone had sensed the psychic's arrival, she gave Elrond a look who shrugged slightly. Will pulled her attention to him as he bowed his head, "Yes, Lady Sabrina."

Sabrina nodded to him before turning her attention back towards Vali and smiled slightly, "Vali, it has been awhile. You've been well?"

"For the most part, I had a rather interesting trip to Cinnabar," Vali rubbed Eevee's ears as he glared at Sabrina for the much unwanted surprise, "Though it did lead to my relationship with Empress improving. And you, Sabrina?"

"Fairly well," Sabrina's eyes gained a slight pinkish blue glow to them, "Ah, I see. You did indeed have an interesting trip to Cinnabar," The gym leader shook her head slightly with a grimace, "Such a large amount of Gyarados, I wasn't aware that your magic could do something like that,"

"Not without a cost," Vali had been so tired during the days after the Gyarados attack even when conscious and hadn't quite returned to normal for around two weeks after reaching Cinnabar.

Delia let out a soft gasp and Vali offered the woman a sheepish smile. She hadn't exactly said anything about how tired she'd been to anyone and begged Steven not to say anything either since it would only increase the worry her family felt. Only after she promised to tell her family at a later point in time did Steven agree to not say anything, she just hadn't figured out when she'd say anything. Inwardly wincing at the fact she'd have some serious explaining to do once they got home, the fire-type master-in-training looked back at Sabrina. Sabrina's eyes flicked towards Delia likely realizing that fact. The gym leader changed the subject by asking, "Have you gotten your seventh gym badge?"

"Yes," Vali grinned as Elrond perked up with a bright smile, "It was difficult, but we managed. It was a difficult battle, but we managed it thanks to everyone doing their best. Elrond was key to winning the battles," Elrond flushed a bit and ducked his head, "We're going to be working hard once everyone's healed up and we've had a little time to relax,"

"I'll have to look up the video of your battle. And Steven?" Sabrina asked with a slight frown, "I do not sense him in the surrounding area,"

"He won his battle as well and headed for Mount Moon since he's helping to get fossils," Vali had spoken with Steven and found out that he'd arrived in Pewter just that morning thanks to Claydol, "Since the Conference is coming up, we both decided it would be best to train apart,"

"I see," Sabrina stared at her for a few moments, "You are welcome in the Saffron City Gym at anytime, Vali. Will, we must go,"

"Yes, Lady Sabrina," Will stood up returning his pokemon.

Ali, Sabrina's Alakazam partner and first pokemon, appeared beside the gym leader as Will walked over to his teacher. Ali inclined her head to Vali before setting a paw on both psychic humans' shoulders. Sabrina's eyes met Vali's moments before Ali whisked the two humans away to Saffron City. She jolted slightly as Sabrina's voice sounded within her mind, " _Be watchful, Vali. That Gyarados pods unnatural size and attack wasn't a coincidence, your power draws attention of those that can sense it."_

Vali's mind went to that fuzzy dream she'd had after passing out from using so much magic. A grimace formed as she realized that Sabrina was right. It would seem she'd need to train her magic just as much as her pokemon if only to be able to face what comes next.

* * *

Despite the fact that she likely had quite a few questions, Delia didn't press Vali for answers after Sabrina left instead she told the fire-type master-in-training to go get some rest. Rather than stay home after emptying her backpack of everything inside and starting her laundry, she grabbed her incubator and placed it inside her backpack before heading back to the lab. Skipping the lab itself, she headed into the Corral and founded a semi-secluded spot before releasing the pokemon she had on her. All of them looked around curiously for a moment before focusing on their trainer who smiled lightly, "We're in the Corral. I need help finding everyone else so we can talk and catch up. While staying home might've been smarter, I wanted to check on everyone and tell them the good news."

Celina took off while Balto released a howl that echoed through the air and Elrond settled into a meditative position floating close to the ground. It took ten minutes for everyone to converge on where Vali had chosen for them to meet up. Each of them greeted everyone else a bit differently. Idril popped out of the ground and hugged her trainer around the knees letting out a gentle coo before moving towards Terra. Empress slammed into her trainer sending the fire-type master-in-training to the ground as she let out happy shrieks. Pippin followed Empress' example though made sure not to accidentally bruise their trainer and purred when she hugged him. Smaug flew into the clearing with Celina and pushed away the two pokemon currently cuddling with their trainer. Lowering his head, he sniffed her lightly before snorting and laid his head on hers.

Vali grinned softly as she reached up to rub the base of Smaug's horns, "Smaug, that wasn't very nice," Smaug snorted as he withdrew slightly to peer at her, "But I missed you too," She looked away from him at the rest of her pokemon, "I missed everyone while we were away," Balto and the others that had been with her let out cries of agreement, "I've got some news so gather around," Everyone moved to surround her with Smaug dropping down to sit in front of her with Empress clambering into her lap and Pippin settling against her side prompting Idril to do the same, "We won our last Gym Battle," Everyone cheered with congratulations being tossed around alongside demands for the story of the battles, "We have Elrond to thank for playing the biggest part, but everyone did their best allowing us to win against Giovanni's pokemon. We're going to the Conference which means we'll be training quite a bit up until that time."

* * *

Sunset was swiftly taking hold of the sky when Vali left the Corral, she'd spent most of the day with her pokemon and explaining the basic training plan she'd cooked up. Ash rushed towards Vali when she entered the house, "Vali, you're finally home!"

"I had to go visit my pokemon," Vali said as she hugged Ash, "How was school?"

"It was awesome!" Ash began to babble about his day while Pidgey landed on Vali's shoulder to nuzzle her.

Vali kicked off her shoes and set down her backpack. Removing her incubator, she walked with Ash into the living room. Delia called them in for dinner and they settled down together, "Ash, did you tell Vali about what happened in your battle class?"

"Oh, it was awesome!" Ash grinned as Vali gave him a curious look, "One of Professor Oak's aids came in and showed us his Scyther. It was so awesome and scarred up in some places,"

"Oh, you met Cyrus," It meant Justin had been on the school visit roster since Professor Oak had some of his aids visit the school every week to talk about various pokemon and how to treat them, "He's an awesome pokemon and Justin was part of the Trainer track,"

"He was?" Ash looked at Vali in surprise, "What happened?"

Vali set down her fork and knife, "Same thing that usually happens with most trainers. He hit a snag at some point in the road and ended up in a slump never finishing within the top ten no matter how hard he and his pokemon worked. After awhile, he did some soul searching and ended up becoming one of Professor Oak's Data Collectors during a visit to the lab in hopes of finding something new to do that would give his life some form of meaning," She grabbed her glass of Pinap juice, "And hit his stride finally finding something he was truly good at and found a lot of joy in,"

"What do you mean by 'usually happens with most trainers'?" Ash asked with a frown.

And hearing that question told Vali one thing, the school wasn't telling its students what exactly trainers faced. Inwardly sighing at the fact she'd be breaking some part of the rose-tinted glasses he wore, she looked at him with a serious expression, "Most of those starting out on the trainer tack don't stay trainers, Ash. They always find a reason why it isn't for them. For some, they can't handle higher level battles where anything could happen," Being forced to bury a pokemon because it'd died due to a battle would turn any trainer off of it, "Money is also an issue for trainers that don't battle well," You can't fund a journey if you don't have money and finding jobs that require no work experience isn't easy especially for ten year olds, "Some just can't handle being on the road for long," Spoiled rich kids and those that loathed the outdoors among them, "And for those like Justin, they hit a point where growth isn't possible which means becoming an Ace or part of the Elite just isn't possible. It takes a certain kind of person to become a high level trainer."

"Why?" Ash looked confused, "Why does it take a certain kind of person?"

"It how the world works," Delia answered as Vali took a drink, "Ash, everyone dreams of becoming a trainer, but many people find their true path somewhere else. I used to be a trainer, but I found my calling somewhere else,"

"It's why having other options like my photography and data collector job is a good thing," Vali told Ash, "Find something you enjoy, a hobby that you'd be able to fall back on if being a trainer doesn't work out,"

"But I want to become a Pokemon Master," Ash protested earning a soft giggle.

"Than think of it as a way to ensure your pokemon will always be fed," Ash gave her a blank look, "Pokemon, especially the bigger ones, eat a lot, Ash. Vulpix is going to be eating as much as Balto when he's fully grown not to mention Terra needing practically a mountain of food by the time she's fully evolved. Having an extra flow of money during time when you're not able to challenge trainers or win battles is a good idea,"

"What would you suggest?" Ash asked with a slight frown, "I don't like taking pictures,"

"I'll set up some classes for you to try," Delia offered as she ladled some more mac and cheese onto her plate, "You'll do two weeks at each to find something or multiple things you're good at,"

"Try some music classes," Vali suggest remembering how some trainers played various instruments in the cities, "Like the flute or something,"

Something about Ash playing an instrument seemed right, it made something within Vali perk up and thrum in approval though she couldn't figure out what. All she really knew was that Ash needed to play an instrument, it was important.

* * *

"You didn't say anything," Delia said not long after Ash had fallen asleep and Vali had returned to the living room.

Vali bit back the urge to groan and walked over to where Balto was laying by the unlit fire-place. Settling down against his side, she looked at Delia with a slight frown, "I didn't want to worry anyone more than I already had."

Delia's already present frown deepened and her eyebrows pinched together, "Vali."

"I'm sorry," Vali told Delia relaxing into the comforting heat Balto was offering her, "I should've said something sooner, but every time I tried, something came up," She picked up Vulpix and began massaging his growing tail earning a low groan from the fox-like pokemon as some of the pain eased, "I'm really sorry, Delia,"

Delia let out a low sigh, "Vali, I'm not mad. Just disappointed."

Vali flinched earning a low whine from both Balto and Vulpix. She hated disappointing Delia or Sirius. She murmured another apology, "I'll try not to keep something like that from you."

"That's all I ask," Delia's frown eased a bit, "Vali, what did your magic do?"

"It kept the ship from capsizing," Vali avoided keeping her mind on the Gyarados attack, "I was exhausted for weeks and really hungry for awhile. It felt like I had a cold mixed with not eating much for weeks,"

Delia gained a pained look, "Your magic takes a lot out of you."

"Yeah, but that's mostly due to not practicing with it," Vali thought of the stone currently locked within her dresser drawer, "While my pokemon train, I'll be training too. Not just physically, I need to train up my magic especially since there's no telling when exactly I'll end up being called,"

Which was also a big reason Vali needed to train her magic, she couldn't count on her inner flame even when whoever was calling to her finally wanted to meet.

* * *

Vali and her pokemon fell into a schedule after resting for a few days. In the mornings, Vali would go for a run with the pokemon still on her main team. After breakfast, she'd go to the lab once Ash had gone to school and worked with her whole pokemon family until lunch. After lunch, she set everyone to work and trained with a specific pokemon until close to dinner. She'd go home with the pokemon still on her main team and eat dinner before settling down for the night. And ended the day with meditation as well as grooming her pokemon. When Professor Oak had the time, he helped them train, but usually had his pokemon work with hers.

* * *

Vali's Houndour egg began hatching not long after sunset and due to the occasion, Ash was allowed to stay up. He was waiting with Delia near the edge of the living room watching with her entire family of pokemon as the egg shell cracked. It jolted and rolled a bit as pieces of egg shell began to fall off. The bottom of the egg promptly shattered leaving the top. With a soft giggle, Vali reached out and gently pulled off the top of the egg.

Houndour blinked slowly at her with big cloudy amber eyes that couldn't quite see just yet. With a gentle hum, she picked up Houndour and began cleaning her off earning a soft whine. When she finished, Vali told the little one, "Welcome to the world, Houndour. Welcome to our pack, Little One."

Slowly each of her pokemon introduced themselves to Houndour, Balto was the first with Vulpix being the last. Even Elrond greeted her with a gentle smile, the instinctive dislike of dark-types not preventing him from loving their newest family member. The pup greeted everyone in return letting out soft whines and whimpers as she took in their scent marking them as pack. Once everyone had given their greeting, Vali fed Houndour and the little one drifted off to sleep. Ash spoke softly as Delia headed off to speak with Professor Oak about the newest addition, "Why were her eyes cloudy?"

"Houndour are usually blind at birth," Vali explained in an equally soft voice cradling her newest baby pokemon, "They gain their sight after a few days. During this time, they memorize their pack's scents, so they're able to always find them regardless of how far they travel,"

"Wow," Ash looked at Houndour in wonder before looking towards Vulpix, "Are you going to give him a nickname?"

"Mhmm," Vulpix perked up at the hum of agreement, "I suppose it is time that he has a nickname. If he wishes for one," She looked at her not-so little fox who's eager eyes stared up at her, "Well, Vulpix? Do you wish for a nickname?" Vulpix nodded rapidly almost making her fear that he'd injure his neck, "Then a nickname you shall have,"

It surprisingly took awhile for Vali to make a list of name for Vulpix despite starting to make it when he'd been born. Knowing of the king gene had helped greatly as it narrowed down the list quite a bit, she still had some trouble. In the end, she'd discarded names like Gilgamesh or Harry/Hadrian since neither fit Vulpix. Arthur was considered for the longest time both for the legends and in memory of Mr. Weasley. Now looking at Vulpix, the only names that came to her were, "Vulpix, do you wish to be called Alexander or Aragorn."

Vulpix stared at her for a few moments tilting his head in confusion and Vali explained the names to him. Eventually, Vulpix decided on Aragorn earning a soft smile from Vali. She gently set Houndour onto Balto's side and picked up Vulpix to press a kiss to his forehead, "Aragorn, my little king. From this day till your last, you'll be known as Aragorn."

The newly named Aragorn licked her chin letting out a soft yip.

* * *

Houndour was a lot more vocal than Aragorn had been, but that wasn't very surprising since the species was one of the most vocal in the world. Almost every way they communicated was vocal, the only time they didn't communicate verbally was when stalking their prey. Houndour was also very nocturnal which wasn't surprising even if it left Vali and her other pokemon exhausted when the little pup finally fell asleep. It would take a month or two to get Houndour onto the same schedule as everyone else from what Professor Oak was able to find out. So until then, Vali decided to set up a nocturnal training schedule which she had contemplated before, but hadn't done since there hadn't been much need for it.

Vali spoke quite a bit with both Steven and Zaria due to this new change in her schedule. Steven had adapted a similar schedule due to the excavation team taking on odd hours within the caverns and tunnels of Mount Moon. Zaria had the same schedule due to her chosen pokemon being mostly nocturnal in nature. Though being able to speak with Steven could be a challenge, the magnetic fields played merry hell on the signals leaving and entering the mountain. So she tended to talk to Zaria most nights, the dark-type master-in-training offering up suggestions on how best to deal with Houndour once she had gotten her sight.

* * *

Aragorn looked at the pup that was stumbling after their trainer and felt some exasperation. Houndour had refused to be carried by their mother-sister-trainer despite knowing she wouldn't be able to keep up. Now that she'd gained her sight, the pup wanted to travel under her own power which was understandable even though being cuddled by Vali while she walked was the best feeling in the world. But the pup's legs were still weak and she wasn't able to balance very well, it meant Houndour wouldn't be able to keep up.

Inwardly sighing at the somewhat idiotic actions of the pup, Aragorn padded over and braced Houndour's side making it easier for her to keep up. As the elder in this situation, he had to do as their pack had done for him and assist their newest member in exploring how the world worked. Houndour huffed at him, but he ignored it as they followed after Vali towards where the other members of their pack waited. Eventually, the pup began to lean more heavily on him and a glance showed that she was tiring.

When more of the pup's weight settled on his side, Aragorn barked catching Vali's attention and the trainer quickly scooped up Houndour with a coo. She patted his head, "Thank you for helping her, Aragorn. You're such a good big brother."

Aragorn's chest puffed up and he began to prance a bit as he trotted beside Vali towards their pack. Looking after the youngest member would be tiring especially if she continued to be headstrong, he would do it not only because she was pack, but because Vali was counting on them to guide the pup.

* * *

Professor Oak called for Vali to join in him the lab around Midnight a week after Houndour had hatched. She walked into the lab with Houndour dogging her heels seeing as the pup didn't want to be carried around. Aragorn was helping to keep Houndour from running off while also explaining anything new the pup taking on the same role Balto and the other had once had. Opening the door, she saw that the lab was still buzzing though at a much lower rate due to the late hour. But there was an indescribable tension in the air that set her on edge, she wondered what exactly had happened to make Professor Oak call on her at such a late hour.

Justin greeted her with a slightly strained smile, "Good evening, Vali."

"Evening, Justin," Vali eyed him as Aragorn and Houndour both tensed a bit likely sensing the atmosphere, "Everything alright?"

"Professor Oak will explain, I'm not quite sure how," Justin replied in a quiet voice as he began leading her through the lab.

Vali felt a knot of tension form in her stomach and hoped that it was nothing truly serious. Justin led her to what most in the lab called the 'Meeting Room'. Professor Oak only used it for important meetings many of which required the utmost secrecy. The tension in her stomach increased as she realized that this was most likely going to be a very serious meeting. Justin opened the door and she walked inside to find a surprising sight. Agatha of the Elite Four sat in the same room as Professor Oak with the ghost-type master not offering the man any sort of criticism. The door closed behind her prompting the fire-type master-in-training to speak, "Professor."

"Vali," Professor Oak tried to smile at her but only succeeded in grimacing, "I apologize for calling you at such a late hour,"

"Given my new training schedule, it is fine," Vali's eyes flicked to the elite who was staring at her with dark eyes that seemed to look through her, "Agatha, it's wonderful to see you again, but I do not believe this meeting is for fun,"

Agatha smirked at her, "Sharp as ever, Valkyrie. It seems that time with the old fossil haven't ruined your instincts."

Professor Oak stood up not addressing the jab, "We should begin. Vali, how much do you know of what's been occurring in Lavender Town?"

"Only that there was a recent survey of the ghost-type pokemon inhabiting the Pokemon Tower," Vali replied with a slight frown, "But my friend who supplied that information didn't say anything bad was going on," She looked towards Agatha, "I assume something has happened, but if it has, why contact me? I'm not exactly high up in the food chain,"

"Because we need adept trainers and the fool is endorsing you," Agatha answered giving Vali a dark grin as her shadow vibrated and crimson eyes peeked out to leer at the fire-type master-in-training, "You have Blaine's interest as well as Surge's which is no easy task. Adding on the videos of your gym battles and reports from various League representatives that have seen you, it has been decided that you'll assist us,"

"With what?" The tension in Vali's stomach increased even more.

Agatha's smile turned sharp, "Lavender Town has become overrun with ghost-type pokemon that attack any who come near it leading the League to call a Code Specter and lock the area down. You'll be helping up find out why this has happened."

A chill spread down Vali's spine Agatha's words. Code Specter was the Kanto code word for ghost-type problems at nearly elite level proportions meaning that only top trainers just below that of the Ace or higher would be able to go near that area. To have it be bad enough for the League to call for a Code Specter meant multiple deaths had occurred, an attack like this from ghost-types was Bad with a capital 'B'. Swallowing heavily, she asked, "Why me? For all that I'm apparently interesting, it doesn't mean my pokemon or myself are ready for something of this level."

"Which is why you'll be working with an Ace and Nocturne," Professor Oak answered and gave her a knowing look at the sharp gasp she gave at the second one, "The Nocturnes have been called in,"

The Nocturnes were the elite dark/ghost-type specialists among the League. Where the Ace trainers were the generalists among the Elites, the Nocturnes specialized in one of two types, dark/ghost types. The League had other specialist squads, but they weren't needed as often as the Ace trainers. Vali was torn between being excited at being able to fight alongside a specialist of that level and fear at the fact that her pokemon family were being expected to fight at that level. She swallowed heavily, "My pokemon haven't faced many ghost-types."

"They'll learn," Agatha replied before giving Professor Oak a glare, "We need to hurry this up, Fool. There is little time to waste, the ghosts will get stronger with each day they're in control and more will fall especially as idiotic little brats decide to test their luck,"

"Right," Professor Oak turned back to Vali with a strained look, "Give me your pokedex, I'm unlocking the carry limits. Justin is getting your pokemon,"

Vali numbly handed over her pokedex, "What about Houndour? Houndour is a baby."

Not to mention wouldn't take well to her pack vanishing, Vali didn't need to voice that concern as Professor Oak was more than aware of that fact. Professor Oak moved over to the machine set up in the corner of the room, "I'll alert Delia and have her look after Houndour."

Vali nodded and dropped down to her knees in order to hug Houndour. Aragorn and Houndour both whined sensing her distress.

* * *

They landed on the outskirts of Lavender Town were a barrier had been set up to keep the non-allied ghost-types away. Vali immediately shivered pulling her jacket closer to herself as an almost oppressive aura of dread slammed into her. Agatha cackled softly, "It'll be worse outside the barrier."

"Joy," Vali muttered as she trotted after Agatha towards where the League had set up it's command center.

A few trainers that Vali vaguely recalled seeing during her travels and the tournaments she'd participated in wandered about. The ones that didn't wander were sitting hunched over and hugging themselves looking pale. Agatha spoke as they passed a few trainers staring into the distance with lost looks on their faces, "Those weaklings can't handle the aura even beneath the barrier."

"Come now, Agatha, most have never been exposed to ghost-types outside of the rare battle," A deep voice called from the darkness of a nearby tent.

Vali jumped a bit placing a hand on the pokeballs sitting on her waist while Agatha sneered at the shadows, "They're weak and unimportant fools until they've proven themselves, Victor. And stop lurking in the shadows, you're worse than the irritating twit Jonathan."

A low chuckle sounded before a large man strode from the shadows. Slick white edged obsidian hair framed an almost deathly pale aristocratic face, the man's pale orange eyes gleamed with an inner light. He wore a skin-tight black short sleeve t-shirt with a Mimikyu printed on it and a pair of black cargo pants. A chain of silver skulls ran from one of his cargo short pockets to his black combat boots. 'Victor' had stitches around the corners around his mouth and the edges of his eyes. Stitches wrapped around his neck in three circular lines, a few circles curled around his fingers and along his visible arms through his black skin-tight shirt.

A giggling Banette sat on 'Victor's' right shoulder with a Shuppet floating over the left one. 'Victor's' eyes focused on her and his lips twisted into a slight grin pulling at the stitches, "And who is this, Aggie?"

Agatha scowled at 'Victor', "Someone far more worth my time than you," Agatha began walking, "Come, Valkyrie. We have better things to do than linger."

Vali glanced at 'Victor' who just kept grinning looking amused. She followed after Agatha, "Who was that?"

"Victor Smyth," Agatha practically spat as her shadow seethed, "One of Nocturne's top dogs that thinks he's a ghost master just because his pokemon won a few battles,"

And someone who must've pissed off Agatha somehow, Vali wondered what the somewhat creepy man had done. Agatha led the way into the League's Command center which seemed to be Ranger's cabin. It was buzzing various League officials and Rangers trying to figure out ways of dealing with the ghosts. Agatha slammed her staff down on the ground causing the room to fall silent as everyone turned to focus on the Elite. One of the League officials stepped forward, "Lady Agatha, you're finally b-"

"What in the name of Arceus are you all doing just standing here and arguing?" Agatha cut him off with a scowl, "We have work to do!"

* * *

After listening to Agatha lay down the law and push everyone to actually be useful, Vali ended up being paired with the two that would be her human partners until the situation had been solved. The Ace Trainer was Velma Higgins who's partner pokemon was an Absol. The Nocturne agent was Lewis Arnold who's main partner was a Dusknoir. Both looked a bit dubious at the idea of having a first year trainer working alongside them even if she'd gotten her badges from the main eight gyms, they looked even more doubtful when it was revealed how little experience she had with ghost-types, but didn't say anything against Agatha. The two were professionals after all, but she knew that neither of them expected her to be of much use.

They were sent off an hour after Vali had arrived once they'd been given the gear they needed. It was mostly comprised of durable flash-lights with multiple batteries and other survival gear. The most important parts of the gear were a comm-unit and a band that would protect them from the ghost-type auras somewhat. The dark purple band provided more relief from the oppressing aura though she didn't really like it. It felt like something was being stifled and her magic practically itched against her skin.

* * *

Lavender Town and the surrounding areas had been divided into diffrent sections with each group being given one. Agatha and the more powerful trainers would be focusing on the epicenter, Pokemon Tower, while everyone else was given the task of ensuring the ghost-types didn't spread out any further. Vali walked with Balto beside her and Eevee sitting on her shoulder. Both tensed and ready to fight should an opponent appear, Balto using Odor Sleuth to keep an eye out for ghost-types. Lewis and Velma walked in front of them with their own pokemon watching the area with wary eyes. Neither were very talkative, Velma scowled whenever she glanced back at the fire-type master-in-training.

Vali glanced at her two human companions as she tightened her grip on Balto's warm fur. Velma was 23 having participated in four Leagues usually managing to place within the top sixteen if not the top ten since her first. She had spring green hair that fell to her waist in a loose braid and light cyan eyes. Lewis was 24 having participated in two Leagues placing ninth in both. He had pale blonde hair much like Draco Malfoy and dopey looking black eyes. Both were on the lean side, Velma thinner and heavily tan while Lewis looked like he hadn't seen much sun over the years. Velma had a slightly rough voice while Lewis' voice was akin to a whisper with a somewhat sharp edge to it.

Lewis spoke as they tromped through the forest surrounding Lavender Town, "Potter-Black, what do you hope to gain from this?"

"Battling experience and maybe a new member of my family," Vali reached up with her unoccupied hand to rub underneath Eevee's chin as the fox-like pokemon tensed at Lewis' voice and decided to be frank with her two human companions wishing Steven were here, "I'm well aware that neither of you think I'll be of much help due to my inexperience with ghost-types and the fact I'm a first year trainer. I know the limits of my skills unlike some of those in my position and will do my best to stay out of the way. So just ignore me for the most part, I'll do my best not to get in the way."

Balto let out a soft huff at her words not liking that she wasn't trying to prove them wrong. Vali rubbed his side soothingly as Velma snorted, "A first year with some actual sense, rare."

Balto and Eevee both tensed at the jab towards their trainer. Vali spoke under her breath, "Calm down guys, we've got better things to do than fight with these two. They won't believe anything until they see it."

Eevee continued to glare at Velma while Balto huffed looking away from the Ace. Lewis let out a soft chuckle, "Velma, do remember that we're stuck together for the moment. No need to piss anyone off."

Velma opened her mouth to say something only to close it when her Absol let out a loud bark and sent off a Shadow Ball towards one of the nearby trees. A shriek sounded as a shadow detached itself from the tree as the Shadow Ball impacted it. A Ghastly revealed itself and screamed at them rushing forward with an almost blood-thirsty look on its face. Absol dodged the rush as Eevee released a Shadow Ball that slammed into Ghastly's face sending the gas-like pokemon flying back as its body began to destabilize. Lewis sent one of the many pokeballs given to the various teams towards the Ghastly. Ghastly vanished into the ball with a shrieking wail and it hit the ground shaking violently before stilling with a soft ping. Bending down, Lewis picked up the pokeball with a gloved hand as Velma said, "That was definitely not regular Ghastly behavior."

"No, it was not," Lewis placed the pokeball into a bag on his waist, "Such anger within, I can't imagine what could have caused it,"

"What will happen to the pokemon being caught?" Vali asked as they resumed walking.

Lewis looked at her, "Most will be released, the ones that bond with a trainer will stay with them unless the League deems them too unruly to be safely held by that trainer," He frowned, "Did you not know that the League would be doing this?"

"I only found out this was going on less than 45 minutes ago," Vali saw the shocked look she was being given, "Agatha was in a hurry given the situation and didn't allow Professor Oak to speak with me much," She had wondered over how the League would be rewarding the trainers participating in this though only thought they'd be given some monetary compensation and healing, "So no, I did not know, but it isn't the first time I've gone into a situation virtually blind,"

Conversation once again fell to the wayside after that, the two elder trainers not seeming to know what to do with her. Though that seemed to be the running theme with most that encountered her, Vali preferred it to the disbelief and annoyance.

* * *

By the time Velma and Lewis decided to rest, they'd been attacked by 32 Ghastly, 17 Haunter, and 2 Gengar alongside other ghost-type species that normally didn't live in Kanto though on a much lower scale. The close their path drifted towards Lavender Town saw an increase in the aggression being shown and the brutal strength of each attack. Vali and her pokemon had quite few scratches from the attacks though weren't too bad off thanks to Velma and Lewis having fairly powerful pokemon on hand. The two elder trainers had begun to acknowledge that she wasn't a normal first year trainer which was nice. Both of them had begun to offer some tips for her first League Conference during the latter end of their journey through the area they'd been given to wander, Velma offered a few tips for becoming an Ace as well.

Vali only settled down to rest once her pokemon had been cared for earning a raised eyebrow from Lewis, "You tend to them first?"

"They're my family," Vali shrugged as she pulled out a water bottle, "They take most of the damage, so caring for them first makes more sense. Besides, a few scratches isn't the worst I've had to deal with,"

"You consider them family?" Velma muttered with an odd look on her face.

"That's what they are to me at least," Vali picked up Elrond and hugged him knowing that the overbearing ghost-type aura was seriously uncomfortable for the psychic-type, "They're my brothers and sisters who I know will always watch my back no matter the situation. Why wouldn't I consider them family?"

"You're an odd one," Velma declared after a moment of silence.

Shrugging slightly, Vali continued to cuddle Elrond for a bit before digging into her pack for some food. She gave each of her pokemon a portion of it along with some water before beginning to eat. Velma and Lewis did the same with their pokemon cuddling close to their trainers. A faint touch to her knee made her look down and she found a pale white candle-like pokemon standing there. Freezing a bit, she eyed the Litwick carefully noting that it's blue flame was out meaning it wasn't draining anyone's life force. Bending down slightly as her pokemon tensed a bit alarmed at how easily the unknown pokemon had snuck up on them, Vali said, "Hello, Little Fellow," Litwick cooed at her as both Lewis and Velma jerked towards her in surprise at the comment, "What are you doing here?" The Litwick looked at her ration bar, "You want food?" Litwick nodded with a cheerful little grin, "But you can use your Flame to get food."

Litwick's cheeks puffed up and it shook itself vigorously. Elrond spoke in her mind, " _The Candle doesn't want to do that when so many others are agitated and doesn't wish to draw their attention to you. She can sense your inner Flame."_

 _'_ How?' Vali asked as she broke off a piece of her ration bar and held it out to Litwick.

Litwick cooed and hummed as she began eating the food given to her. Elrond spoke as everyone watched the little pokemon eat, " _The Candle isn't bound by the laws of this world. Any of its kind could sense your flame which is why any here are avoiding you."_

"Vali, what are you doing?" Velma demanded with a startled look on her face.

"Feeding the poor little thing, she's hungry," Vali didn't speak of her inner flame, "She isn't going to attack," She gestured to Elrond while breaking off another piece of her ration bar to give Litwick, "Elrond can understand her,"

"How? I thought psychics couldn't understand ghosts," Lewis looked at Elrond in interest.

Vali translated what Elrond told her, "He says its like listening to an echo, but doable if he draws on his electric half," She realized something, "Elrond, can you translate what Litwick says?" Elrond nodded and turned to Litwick who peered up at the human curiously, "Litwick, can you answer a few questions? I'll give you a ration bar if you do," Litwick who churred at the idea of more food and began bouncing around eagerly, "Sound like a good trade, Litwick?"

Litwick nodded as Velma gave Vali a look of disbelief, "You're seriously bargaining with a pokemon."

"Do you have any other idea how to do this without making her angry enough to attack?" Vali retorted before focusing on Elrond as he translated what Litwick was saying, "Humans take many from homes, bring us to odd tower, try to summon Guardian King, it fail not enough power, no connection formed, humans get angry, hurt us, powerful ones rebel, make bad humans go away, no way home, so much anger," Litwick visibly shuddered, "Powerful ones no like humans,"

"So a group of Cultists or something were trying to summon Giratina though I've never heard it refereed to like that," Lewis looked at Litwick with a frown, "But why isn't she angry about being dragged here?"

Vali once again translated, "Like humans. Knew good ones. No harm. Want to be good," Litwick gave the humans a look, "Watch you. Watch others. Find you. Like you. Want her," Litwick pointed at Vali with that last one earning wide eyed looks, "Good one. Want her," She stared at the little candle in shock, "You want me as your trainer?" Litwick nodded as best the small pokemon could, "But why me?" Elrond translated, "Watch you. Treat others well. Kind. Care. Why not?" Vali pulled out one of the pokeballs she'd been given and Litwick immediately caught itself, "Well that happened."

"What the actual hell?" Velma burst out looking at the pokeball in Vali's hands.

"I've stopped asking that question," Vali looked at the elder trainer with some small amusement as she released Litwick so the little ghost could eat the promised ration bar, "It's easier that way,"

The incredulous look shot towards Vali made her want to laugh, but she managed to hold it in knowing that Velma wouldn't appreciate it. Lewis shook his head seemingly deciding not to touch the situation, "We'll need to call the base and tell them what happened," He looked at her with a slight smirk, "Nicely done, Vali."

* * *

They ended up being recalled to the ranger cabin after the information had been relayed. Most of the League officials crowding the Ranger cabin were reluctant to believe Litwick's words, the idea that a psychic-type could understand a ghost-type was fairly impossible in their minds. Agatha ended up calling in Sabrina to stop the arguments who confirmed that Elrond had been able to translate for Litwick. Agatha left the Ranger's cabin with a murderous look on her face and a withering shadow filled with malevolent red eyes. Litwick cuddled into Vali's arms having been allowed to stay out once Agatha confirmed that the small pokemon would not attempt to harm anyone. Sabrina turned to Vali as the room exploded into harsh whispers, "I am surprised to see you here, Vali."

"Agatha requested for me to join her," Vali replied as both Lewis and Velma looked at the gym leader in shock, "I didn't really have much choice, but to come,"

"I see," Sabrina hummed softly as she reached out to gently touch the top of Elrond's head earning a light smile from the Alolan Raichu, "A young ghost like Litwick suits you though I had thought you'd end up with a member of the Gengar-line instead,"

"Maybe I'll get one at some point," Vali shrugged as Litwick peered at the psychic in curiosity, "I'm content to let it happen when it does,"

Sabrina smiled lightly, "It is truly refreshing to deal with you compared to most of the first year trainers I've been encountering lately."

"Just another two weeks than you'll be closing the gym for a bit, right?" Vali asked earning a nod, "Perhaps after the Conference, we could meditate together again. It would be nice to see how well I've been keeping up with your lessons,"

"I would like that," Sabrina inclined her head, "I look forward to it,"

Sabrina took her leave shortly after due to the late hour. Velma gave Vali an incredulous look, "First you get a Litwick by just talking to it. Now one of the most stoic gym leaders seems to like you. What's next? Lt. Surge taking you on as an apprentice?"

"No that will hopefully be Blaine," Velma let out a loud half-scream and stomped out of the Ranger cabin amid wide-eyed stares.

Lewis shook his head, "Vali, I do believe you've broken Velma."

* * *

Vali, Lewis, and Velma were sent out again only this time they'd been given an area in Lavender Town proper. Agatha had been through the area meaning that most of the strong ghosts had already been dealt with. Looking up through the gloom, she caught sight of Pokemon Tower and stilled as her eyes focused on what parts of the great spire not coated in the hazy smog that had fallen over the town. The very air around the tower seemed to vibrate as an otherworldly energy far more potent than that of the ghosts she'd encountered lashed outward. It was only when Elrond touched her cheek that the fire-type master-in-training realized she had stopped breathing and her energies were beginning to boil underneath her skin. Taking a deep breath, she clamped down on both energies and pulled them back to her core.

Inwardly grimacing at how tight her skin felt and the uncomfortable warmth boiling within her chest, Vali resumed walking after Velma and Lewis. Something strange was inside that tower though if what Litwick said was true about the humans being unable to summon Giratina, what had been summoned in the legendaries place? A shiver ran down her spine at the thought. A loud shout echoed from up ahead seconds before a loud boom shattered the unnatural silence of the town and shook the ground. Velma and Lewis took off towards it with the younger trainer following her elders at a somewhat slower pace feeling dread creep down her spine.

The street ahead was mostly a smoking crater with shattered pieces of various houses laying all over the place. Velma barked out, "Find any survivors! We need to know what happened."

The Ace took off with Lewis heading in another direction. Vali looked at Elrond and asked in a soft tone, "Can you feel anyone?"

Elrond closed his eyes for a few moments before shaking his head, " _No, the area is too coated in otherworldly energies. Perhaps Litwick might be able to sense them."_

Vali nodded and called out Litwick as Balto began scenting the air looking for any survivors. Litwick visibly shuddered as she appeared and looked around with an almost fearful expression. So something else had been summoned, it must've been bad if Litwick was scared. She called out Litwick's name in a gentle tone and the ghost-type peered at her curiously with fear flickering in the little ghost's eyes, "Litwick, we're looking for any survivors in the area. Can you sense their life force and take me to them?"

Litwick bobbed with a hum and the deep otherworldly sapphire blue flame her species was known for flared to life. The flame flicked almost hypnotically and Vali quickly diverted her eyes before she could be trapped in its thrall. Litwick let out coo and began hopping prompting her to follow after the little pokemon. Balto joined them with Elrond grabbing her hand with a paw looking around with a wary look in his eye. They soon came upon a unconscious man bleeding heavily from multiple scratches though the worst came from one on his head. She tapped the comm unit in her ear, "I've found one unconscious man. Bleeding heavily from what look like scratches caused by flying rubble, he has a head wound."

A crackling sound came from the comm, "Noted, Potter-Black. Location has been marked and a medic team is already on their way, how bad is the head wound?"

"A scratch. I'm not sure how deep," Vali bent down to check the man's pulse and began putting pressure on the man's wounds, "I've checked his pulse and am putting pressure on his wounds,"

"Copy that, I'll relay the information to the medics," The Ranger on the other end replied, "They'll be there in two minutes,"

Vali nodded as Elrond began removing the debris from around the unconscious man. Litwick's flame went out and the ghost-type looked at her actions curiously. Balto settled down to guard them occasionally using Flamethrower to dismiss some of the chill that seemed to gather in the area. She cast a warming charm to hopefully keep the unconscious man's condition from worsening due to the chill. The medic team arrived soon and two of them took over tending to the unconscious man while the others headed to where her human companions had likely found some injured people as well. With the medics there, she was free to continue looking for survivors.

Vali heard shouting as she followed the remnants of a street and quickly made her way towards the source. Just as she reached it, a wailing discordant sound echoed through the air and a wave of something passed through the air. Gasping as the wave slammed into her, she felt as if all the energy in her body was being sucked out and collapsed onto the ground with her pokemon doing the same. As her vision began to go black, she heard rushing footsteps and saw a pair of feet entering her field of vision. She heard a soft gasp and someone murmur, "Oh my, what a curious child you are. Such powerful energy."

She tried to force her eyes to stay open and turn her head towards the source. Barely catching sight of almost white gold, she crumbled fully to the ground.

* * *

Vali's awareness came back slowly starting with the heavy almost leadened feeling of her body and just how chilly it felt. She slowly realized that her hands and legs were tied up. Alarm didn't come until she couldn't feel Elrond's almost constant psychic presence in the back of her mind or the subtle weight of her pokeballs, she forced her heavy eyelids open and found herself laying on the floor of a stone chamber. The stone was a heavily purple tinted grey which was normally only seen in Lavender Town meaning she had to still be somewhere in the general area. Looking around, she spotted a few people chained up against the walls. All of them were unconscious, she felt a tingle of dread run through her. The odd alter sitting in the middle of the room only made that dread worse. What was going on?

Vali began squirming against her bonds as she tried to find her stuff. She spotted her pokeballs sitting by a few packs and some random stuff like a Jigglypuff plush. An old grandfather clock lay against the wall and showed that it was nearing five in the morning which meant she'd been unconscious for at least an hour. Shifting around to look at her bonds, whoever had tied her up used the strong ropes she'd been given by the League. Inwardly groaning at the sight, she would have to use her magic to untie them somehow.

Focusing on her magic, Vali began to direct it towards the ropes only to stop when the door to the room opened. A man strode into the stone chamber carrying what looked like a girl around her age over his shoulder. He wore a black robe almost exactly like the ones Snape had worn when she'd attended Hogwarts. A shock of neon green hair was cropped somewhat close to his skull. She spotted the almost white gold color she'd seen before falling unconscious which turned out to be a pendant. It almost looked like that cross on Petunia's bible only more jagged and with circles attached to the tips. The man's almost dazed looking brown eyes were narrowed as he walked over to the wall and began chaining up the girl he carried. He turned towards her and a disturbingly wide grin formed on his face, "You're awake!"

The words carried an odd accent with the man almost pausing as he spoke them. It was like he wasn't used to speaking the language. Vali felt even more unsettled as the man began to walk towards her and she finally noticed the uneven walk. Spotting the blood leaking sluggishly from one of his legs, she grimaced a bit. The man didn't seem to notice, "Master will be so pleased that you're awake!"

"M-master?" Vali's tongue felt heavy and her jaw didn't really want to move.

"Master Xen of course," The man continued to grin at her, "He's so eager to meet you. He says that your energy is like nothing he's ever seen in a human before,"

The man stopped walking suddenly and turned his head rather slowly towards the door which opened to reveal a well dressed boy around her physical age. He wore a thin white shirt and pale gray pants with no shoes. He wore a pale gold choker with the same cross-like pendant as the guy that had been speaking to her. Slitted golden eyes on black sclera marked him as inhuman, the sharp canines peaking past his bloodless lips added to that. The boy's hair was charcoal grey with black stripes and fell to the middle of his back. A grinning Gengar floated beside him carrying a bag while a Duskull followed behind carrying a jay. The boy spotted the man and spoke in the same soft tone that she'd heard before passing out, "Colin, what are you doing?"

"The girl has awoken, Master," The man, 'Colin', stated with that disturbing grin of his.

The boy, 'Master Xen' most likely, looked at her and their eyes met. A bright grin formed on his lips revealing sharp teeth much like that of a cat, "I see. Please go ensure that everything is prepared for the ritual. Gaia, Fran, assist him and ensure nothing is wrongly prepared."

"Yes, Master!" Colin agreed and walked towards the Gengar and Duskull.

The boy chuckled softly as he strode over, "Such a simple thrall," He focused on her, "A pleasure to see that you've woken, Child. My name is Xen."

Vali felt the other worldly energy she'd been feeling since entering Lavender Town proper coming from him and felt a shudder run through her, "You're the one I've been sensing."

The boy's eyes widened seconds before his grin followed in an almost unnatural way taking up a majority of his face, "Definitely an interesting child, I have not met another outside of the psychics that can sense even that. I took you due to the odd energies I've felt coming from you. Mostly the fire that no normal human can posses, Valkyrie."

"How do you know my name?" Vali asked feeling more creeped out by the second.

"One of the odd machines you carry, it told me who you were," The boy reached out and pushed her into a sitting position with ice cold hands, "That alongside those circular devices, pokeballs I believe they're called, are quite interesting though I wouldn't use them myself. The memories they carry alongside the pokemon attached were quite interesting to witness. You're a strong mortal to have faced such things," Vali glanced towards her pokeballs and Xen's grin turned oddly gentle, "Your family is fine. I wouldn't harm such loyal pokemon nor any if I could help it. They're just asleep as I couldn't allow them to ruin my ritual or prevent me from speaking with you,"

"Asleep? When will they wake up?" Vali focused on the fact her pokemon were alright for the moment.

"In a few hours, they'll suffer no ill effects," Xen moved back and sat down in front of her, "It's odd to meet another like me though tied to fire rather than death,"

"Tied to death?" Vali asked with a frown.

The boy hummed softly, "Giratina claimed me, Child. A long time ago when things were much less certain and odd abilities repressed," He eyed her, "Two have claims on you, but more have touched you. You do not know either, do you?" Vali shook her head, "You will in time. They do not let us go unclaimed for long once our powers begin to show though you'll likely go longer than I."

"What are you doing here?" Vali filed the information away in her mind for later.

"The idiotic mortals that decided to try and play god attempted to summon Giratina as the little one told you," Xen frowned darkly, "Instead they ended up summoning me, I had the ghosts get rid of them and protect this place until I could get back home. Unlike Giratina, I cannot go between worlds when summoned unless by one I allow to summon me," He shook his head, "Thankfully, I am able to use a ritual to get home,"

"The ghosts are hurting people and killing them," Vali felt a bit bad for Xen.

"Only those that tried to summon Giratina found death by their hands," Xen retorted, "The ones that pushed too much died from their injuries, yes, but not because of my orders. Had the mortals left us alone, I would've been gone by now though I suppose they have their uses,"

"Uses?" Vali's eyes went to the unconscious people, "You're not going to kill them, are you?"

"Nothing of the sort, they have excess aura that I'll be siphoning off to transport myself home," Xen offered her a smile, "The fact you're here will ensure that they'll suffer no truly ill effects save for perhaps being unconscious for a couple days,"

"How?" Vali tilted her head slightly.

"The odd energy I've never encountered before and your fire will help. I won't take much as both are quite potent," Xen explained as Colin moved around with the two ghost-types, "You'll like need to sleep more often for the next few days and need to eat more than usual. Now, I would suggest asking any questions as the ritual will be ready in a few moments and I'd prefer to be away before Aggie comes along,"

"Why do you call me child?" Vali settled on the easiest one.

Xen chuckled softly, "Simple, I look like a child because I prefer it. In reality, I'm over two hundred years old."

Eyes widened in disbelief, Vali asked, "How?"

"My powers allow it and Giratina prefers to have an eternal companion other than Shaymin," Xen grinned lightly, "I assume your next question is are there more of us and yes, there are. Granted there aren't many of us, it takes special conditions to allow our powers to activate. At the current moment, five others are active. Of them, one is in the same position as me being under Xerneas. Lugia, Cresselia, and Lunala's chosen are just beginning to understand their powers as you are,"

"Do all the Legendaries chose someone?" Vali asked curiously.

Xen shook his head, "No, they're usually content to watch the world as very few catch their attention. Only the Chosen One gains any true attention."

The words struck a cord in Vali as the memory of what the Moltres carving had said, 'Underneath his burning gaze, they shall become the guides of the Chosen..'. She asked, "Who is the Chosen One?"

"The Legendaries champion who'll save the world from the next age of darkness," Xen peered at her curiously, "Why do you ask?"

"My usual traveling partner gave me a carving of Moltres with writing on the back. Some of it had faded," Vali told him shivering as she remembered the words, "Someone is trying to decode it, but isn't having much luck,"

"That sounds familiar, where did the carving come from?" Xen had an odd look on his face.

"My traveling partner got it in Fuchsia city," Vali told him.

Xen hummed softly, "Familiar indeed, you'll find out what the rest was when the Lord of Flames calls you to him."

Vali wanted to groan at the fact it always seemed to be later when it came to getting information. She grumbled softly, "Why is it always later?" Xen merely smiled at her, "My fire then. It's too wild to train."

"Fire always is," Xen's eyes glowed with amusement, "Just meditate, it will help when the time comes. I assume you've already discovered one of its abilities?"

"On Cinnabar," Vali confirmed earning a slight grin, "I'm apparently going to be fighting a Magmar when I finish training under the Lord of Flames,"

"Oh, that will be interesting. I'll have to watch," Xen's amusement seemed to increase, "Calling them to you is usually the first we Bearers end up using,"

"That's what all of us are called?" Vali asked earning a nod.

"Pretty much, we have a few other names. I've been called a Spirit Caller sometimes," Xen leaned forward a bit, "You'll learn the other names in time. Just be careful to keep it under wraps until after you've been trained. Even then, the less people that know, the better especially since the Chosen One is coming,"

"Master, the ritual preparations are finished," Colin said with a grin as he stumbled up with the two ghosts following after the man nodding their heads.

Xen heaved a light sigh, "Good, I have grown weary," He looked towards Vali, "Will you allow me to use your energy? I will only use what is needed."

Vali hesitated before nodding, "So long as no one else is harmed, the ghosts will stop attacking people once this is done, right?"

"Yes, I have ensured it," Xen inclined his head.

"Then I will allow it," Vali agreed earning a bright grin.

"Thank you, Valkyrie," Xen turned to Colin, "I will begin. Do not interfere, I want you to ensure Valkyrie and those used are in Aggie's hands. When they are, you will be released from my service,"

Colin nodded with that creepy grin, "Yes, Master Xen."

Xen walked into the ritual circle and turned his head to peer at Vali, "Goodbye, Valkyrie. We will meet again soon enough."

The circle flared brightly as Xen stepped into the center and began chanting in a whispery, yet rough language that felt like it didn't belong in this world. Vali felt her energy begin to drop as Xen's chanting picked up the pace a bit. Closing her eyes, she followed the flow of her energies and felt something chilly pulling them into what felt like a void. Focusing on the chilly energy, she found herself reminded of the Dementors only less dreadful mixed heavily with something that reminded her of winter. She felt it push her away as Xen's voice echoed through her mind, " _Easy, Valkyrie. We wouldn't want your spirit to detach itself from your body."_

Vali withdrew quickly and soon Xen's ritual circle glowed brightly as her energy began to drop almost to the same level it had been after the Gyarados attack. The door to the room slammed open just as a loud cracking sound echoed through the air and the room was filled with light. When the light faded, Xen, his ghosts, and the ritual circle were gone. Eyes slowly falling closed as her remaining energy slowly drained away, she heard rushing feet and someone shouting her name.

* * *

Finding herself in a hospital when she finally woke up after Xen's draining ritual was slightly startling though understandable, Vali didn't really recognize that she was in a hospital until she was able to stay awake longer than two minutes. The doctors didn't allow for any visitors until she was able to stay awake for ten minutes, but they did allow her pokemon to be in the room. The bigger ones had to stay in their pokeballs because the room wasn't exactly built for big pokemon, but having at least some of her pokemon helped ease the anxiety she felt at being in a hospital again. Litwick wasn't among her pokemon which was alarming, the League official that came to get her statement about what had happened stated that the little pokemon was currently in quarantine until the ghost was cleared. She didn't like it, but couldn't argue against League Policies. But the League official assured her that Litwick would be her pokemon, she had captured it fair and square.

Xen's words had proven true and everyone used in the ritual hadn't been harmed and had woken up within hours save for her. Colin had woken up with no memory of Xen or what had actually happened. He was apparently one of the caretakers of Pokemon Tower. With no memory of the events and no proof that he'd committed any crimes, the League released him though his job at Pokemon Tower had been terminated. Vali had been slightly sad for the creepy man, but the memory of him carrying that girl into the ritual room kept her from feeling too deeply about the situation. The League had spun a story about a ghost smuggling operation gone wrong to explain what happened in Lavender Town to the general public. Despite everything that had happened, Lavender Town would be just fine.

Velma and Lewis came to apologize for leaving her alone while in Lavender Town. Both had gotten into trouble for doing that, they were both being put through remedial training as a result. Vali tried to protest due to how serious the situation had been, but neither would budge forcing her to accept the apology.

* * *

Vali was cuddling with Houndour who'd been dropped off by Professor Oak during a brief visit when a knock sounded on the door. Looking up from the article she was reading to Houndour, she called out, "Come in."

Aragorn, Eevee, Elrond, and Pippin who were currently out alongside Houndour tensed a bit as the door opened to reveal Lt. Surge. Pippin let out a happy mew and darted towards the Gym Leader stumbling slightly. Lt. Surge let out a loud laugh and bent down as his Raichu jumped from his shoulder. Jolteon slipped into the room beside Raichu with the two moving towards the bed. Lt. Surge picked up Pippin as his pokemon greeted hers. Eevee perked up a bit at seeing Jolteon and moved from her pillow to go greet the electric eeveelution who looked happy to see the other. Houndour looked at the newcomers in interest, but didn't leave her side. Lt. Surge looked at her as he carried Pippin over, "You look tired for someone who's been sleeping so much, Kid."

"Considering what happened, I think I'm allowed to look tired," Vali replied as she turned her head to look at Houndour, "Houndour this is Lt. Surge. He and his pokemon are good friends,"

Houndour perked up and finally went to greet Lt. Surge as the man set down Pippin. Lt. Surge smiled and scratched the Houndour's ears, "Not a bad size, young?"

"Only hatched almost two weeks ago," Vali answered as Raichu jumped onto the bed, "Hey, Raichu. Nice to see you again,"

Raichu walked over to her and hugged the fire-type trainer around the neck. Vali hugged Raichu back as Lt. Surge said, "You get into trouble a lot, Kid. That luck of yours, it's definitely something."

"Yeah," Vali released Raichu to greet Jolteon, "So what's up with the visit? No offense, but I don't think Gym Leaders leave their cities in the last days of the Circuit to visit trainers,"

Lt. Surge snorted as he finished petting Houndour who then began greeting his pokemon, "It is when I'm delivering a certain pokemon that has been in League custody and wanted to make sure my recommendation didn't get you hurt."

Vali perked up at that, "Litwick?"

Lt. Surge reached into his pocket and pulled out a great ball, "Here you go, Litwick is officially your pokemon."

"Thank you," Vali took the pokeball feeling it warm against her fingers, "Surge, I'm actually glad that you recommended me. I wouldn't have gotten Litwick if you hadn't. The situation sucked, but it gave me some valuable experience. So thank you,"

Lt. Surge snorted with a slight grin, "You really are a strange kid, you know."

"So I've been told," Vali gripped Litwick's pokeball smiling a bit.

 **Trainer's Name:**

 **Age:**

 **Gender:**

 **Hair Color:**

 **Eye Color:**

 **Region of origin:**

 **(Just basic information for each pokemon)**

 **Pokemon 1:**

 **Pokemon 2:**

 **Pokemon 3:**

 **Pokemon 4:**

 **Not everyone's OC and Pokemon will be used**


	20. Chapter 20 pt1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997: This chapter will come in two parts. I hope you'll enjoy it. I am looking through each OC thoroughly and putting together the battles as best I can. Please be patient. The next chapter will definitely be longer.**

 **japs .p9 : Glad you liked it.**

 **frankieu:** **Glad you enjoyed the chapter.**

 **il2swim57 : I'm happy to hear it. **

**AyameKitsune : Hope you enjoy this chapter as well.**

 **Blank-name26: Glad to hear it.**

 **Twister60 : Heh.**

 **BioHazard82 : Thank you.**

 **SeleneMoon27 : Yes, but not for awhile.**

 **yachiru -chan92: Always happy to provide.**

 **HistoricasLP : I love listening to hearing suggestions.**

 **vxgt : Glad to hear it.**

 **Acolyte of the Blood Moon : Probably not going to follow Steven's adventures on Mount Moon.**

 **cerezo. dulce11 : Glad you enjoyed the chapter.**

 **Jerrend : I know. **

**eldiar : I'm aware.**

 **TeamDeath : My profile has Vali's pokemon on it.**

 **sammyfox : Thnxs.**

 **ThunderClaw03 : Yeah she does.**

 **nami94 : I know. I had Boomerang on when I was writing it.**

 **Misrel : I know. She will.**

 **Um : Do you realize it is not? **

**Taiki : Glad to hear it.**

 **Poseidon93 : I Am glad to hear it.**

 **akinomatis : Fixed it, I thank you for pointing it out.**

 **mr. bumpity: I'm glad you're enjoying the story. **

**Ktap4321 : Glad to hear you're enjoying this chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 20 Pt. 1

* * *

"Are you alright?" Steven asked after Vali had finished explaining the situation in Lavender Town to him while watching her pokemon train.

Granted Vali hadn't been allowed to say everything, Lt. Surge had been very clear on how much she'd be allowed to say to anyone especially someone from another region like Steven. She had given much the same information about the Lavender Town incident as the League was feeding everyone not in the know, but had gone a bit more in-depth. She had mentioned meeting Xen, but not the specifics. All Steven really knew was that a pokemon had knocked her out during the last bit of fighting. Bending down as she pushed away the bolt of guilt that ran through her for not giving him all the details, she picked up the ball she'd picked up for Houndour and threw it again earning an excited bark from the pup, "Just really tired, I'll be fine soon enough. Delia and Professor Oak are making sure I'm not over working myself. Elrond's helping them," The Alolan Raichu had been a big mother hen since they'd been reunited after the League Pokemon Doctors had cleared him, "I'll be fine by the Conference."

"You're still competing?" Steven asked with a worried look on his face.

"Of course," Vali understood where Steven was coming from even without knowing all the details, "We've worked so hard to compete, Steven. Throwing it all away just because of Lavender Town doesn't make sense, we weren't seriously hurt," She took a seat on a tree-stump as Balto raced by with Aragorn and Arwen nipping at his heels, "I talked about it with everyone and we ended up deciding not to waste all the effort we've made to get to this point,"

"I see," Steven didn't look like he completely agreed with the decision, "If you're all sure, I don't really have much to say," Vali was glad that he wasn't just dismissing her decision, "So you've got a Litwick now?"

"Yeah," Vali glanced towards where Litwick was practicing Will-o-Wisp, "She's a real sweet-heart. From what Surge told me, she's pretty young by ghost-pokemon standards. Only 15 years old," Which was ironic given how old she would've been had the de-ageing not happened, "She isn't much for actually battling. She will battle, but she's more interested in just playing right now. I'm guessing that she might end up being a contest pokemon or a showcase one. I'm still going to train hard with her if only to make sure if she does have to battle that she'll do well,"

"Every pokemon is diffrent," Steven agreed with a slight smile, "It'll be interesting to see how you'll train her," A low boom sounded as a wave of heated air flew past the clearing she was currently sitting in, "What was that?"

"That would be Smaug training with Empress," Vali's tone turned a bit dry, "My dragoness decided that she needed a better opponent to train with and decided to pick fights with Smaug until he agreed," She huffed at the soft laugh that Steven let out, "Smaug's taken to tossing her around whenever she's too annoying. It's a good thing Bagon have some of the most durable bodies among baby dragon-types or we'd be in trouble," She eyed him curiously, "So how are the tunnels?"

"Not bad, the pokemon are getting stronger each time we've gone lower, but we haven't encountered anything we can't deal with," Steven looked pleased, "Metagross is actually enjoying themselves a lot. The electromagnetic field of Mount Moon is forcing them to develop a higher level of control over their psychic powers alongside Claydol,"

"That sounds pretty exciting, it looks like your opponents during the Conference will have to fight two pretty powerful psychics," Vali was happy for the two and couldn't wait to see their future battles, "Seen any of the Clefairy-line?"

"Only a few glances, they don't seem very interested in anyone outside of observing what's probably going to be their first ever humans," Steven looked a bit disappointed, "It's a shame. I was hoping to see more of them,"

"You probably will before alls said and done," Vali smiled at Houndour as the puppy dropped her ball in front of the fire-type master-in-training and picked it up feeling very glad that she had gloves on since spittle covered the entire pink orb in a sticky clear mess, "If you do, I'd love a photo,"

"I'll try to get one," Steven promised with a chuckle, "How is being back in Pallet other than that mess?"

"Not bad, Professor Oak is pretty busy with his current big project, so we're not getting much one-on-one time," Vali threw the ball and watched as Houndour took off after it, "Ash and Gary are both over the moon, they've been working really hard with their pokemon. Ash is definitely going to do well outside of school when it comes to trainer battles. He's quick on his feet and able to think of some really good combinations on the fly. Gary will probably have a bit of trouble, but with Bellsprout at his side, he'll flourish as well,"

"That's good to hear," Steven hummed lightly, "I look forward to seeing their progress,"

"Delia's been helping me figure out new recipes for everyone," Vali rubbed her hand against the grass, "Everyone's been training so hard that we've had to change up their diets to ensure they're healthy. Aragorn's second tail has come in very well though he's still having a bit of trouble figuring out how to use it," Aragorn tripped almost as much as Pippin and often had trouble using fire based attacks since his control was off, "I never realized how much the Vulpix-line used their tails to control their fire-based attacks,"

"That actually makes sense given that they have so many ta-ls," Steven image blurred, "V-li..."

"Steven," Vali almost groaned, "You're breaking up,"

"T-lk -o yo- l-ter," Steven responded as the image went black with a low popping sound and the words signal lost ran across the screen.

Putting her pokenav away with a low sigh, Vali stood up as Elrond floated towards her carrying an unconscious Pippin in his psychic grip. Elrond set Pippin down, _"He's going to be out for awhile."_

Vali grabbed her medical bag and began treating Pippin's injuries. The Luxio was trying to learn Wild Charge to add another attack to his repertoire. Good idea in theory, Pippin was finding it hard to keep from tripping up on top of not running into things with Wild Charge. Needless to say, Pippin spent more time rolling around on the ground and hitting things. She shook her head lightly, "Perhaps Pippin should practice his other attacks for awhile."

" _That will probably be a good idea,"_ Elrond noticed the lack of her phone, " _Did you finish your talk with Steven?"_

"The call cut," Vali would be very glad to see Steven in person if only to actually finish a conversation, "How goes your own training?"

" _Fairly well, I can almost lift a Graveler,"_ Elrond looked pleased with himself, " _Magic Coat is somewhat difficult, but I should have it down in time for the Conference,"_

"Just make sure you don't overdue it," Vali told him as she sprayed the heavy bruising across Pippin's legs and chest where the worst of it was, "You don't need to exhaust yourself especially with the Conference so soon. Alright?"

Elrond nodded his head as he settled down beside her, " _I won't,"_ His right ear twitched a bit which Vali had come to realize meant he was psychically observing their pokemon family members, " _Terra has about finished mastering Outrage according to_ Dragonite," She would have to set Terra up to mastering Ancient Power a bit more alongside another attack though which one was the question, _"Celina's progress on Tailwind is going about as well as Pippin's attempts at learning Wild Charge,"_ She bit back a soft snicker since her Pidgeot was likely throwing a small tantrum at messing up her feathers, " _Pele is making some good progress on Lava Plume though its slow_ ," Which was good since the Numel needed another attack in her repertoire, " _Eevee is practicing Stored Power, but his store of energy is becoming too low for him to continue much longer,_ " They'd meditate together fairly soon, " _Idril is coming this way,_ "

The breathless tone Elrond used at that last part earned a concerned look, "Elrond?"

" _It's time,"_ Elrond murmured as his ears twitched joyfully and his cheeks began to spark.

"Time? Time for what?" Vali asked as the ground close by opened up to reveal Idril, "Idril," The Sandshrew peered at her, "What's going...?"

Vali trailed off as a familiar glow covered Idril's body which slowly began to expand. Elrond's excitement must've been broadcasted as all her pokemon made their way into the clearing with Alakazam assisting those that couldn't arrive quickly. Houndour and Vulpix stared at the evolving Sandshrew in awe as they instinctively recognized that something big was happening. The earth around Idril rose up coiling around the evolving Sandshrew in withering tendrils almost completely enveloping her. There was a deep thrum emanating from the earth, the tendrils rose higher and higher almost above the tree-line before curling inward surrounding Idril in a cocoon of earth Everything stilled with no sounds or wind seeming to enter the clearing making it seem as if the very world was waiting breathlessly for what happened next, Houndour was completely silent for once.

The cocoon slowly began to crack apart starting with a single crack near the center at the very tip of it. Cracks formed everywhere in an almost spiderweb-like fashion before the cocoon crumbled to dust that froze mid-air before slowly lowering to the ground, a bipedal pokemon stood in the center of the former cocoon. The Sandslash stood taller than the Sandshrew had and lost the green color that had coated her body. Most of her underside is a dark mustard yellow with a tanned cream underbelly. Idril's muzzle was narrow and her eyes had become an almond-shaped dark purple. Idril's back is mostly covered in sharp crimson quills formed from her toughened dry hide. The claws on her paws and feet had become larger with a razor sharp edge capable of slicing through all but the strongest boulders like melted butter while also being hard enough to easily burrow through the ground like a fish in water. All in all, Idril's evolved form was dangerous.

Vali's eyes were locked with Idril's as the dust settled completely. Slowly she began to walk forward, Idril copied her movement until they were standing a step apart. Reaching out, she held her hand out to Idril who slowly held out one of her clawed paws. Coarse gritty skin met calloused, a soft smile formed on her lips and she murmured, "I'm so happy for you, Idril. You look amazing."

Idril let out a soft coo as her spines extended and vibrated slightly releasing a cloud of dust. Idril hugged Vali and the fire-type master returned it being careful to avoid the razor sharp spines feeling a great sense of pride run through herself. She had raised Idril up from that starving baby Sandshrew in the tunnels of Mount Moon into an absolutely beautiful Sandslash. Tears formed in her eyes, she heard all of her family raise their voices in congratulations even Elrond who was rarely vocal in the physical sense since his evolution.

* * *

Idril dug her new claws into the earth feeling a sense of awe as she stared at the ground. As a Sandshrew, she had always felt something from the earth hearing just tiny bits of a song when tunneling beneath cool embrace. Faint memories of her dame talking of the earth's song before the Sandslash was killed, she hadn't thought much of it even after Vali had begun training her to battle. Until now at least, the voice of the earth clear to her even above the ground and its throaty thrum almost deafening beneath it. It was no wonder why members of her kind often chose to live their entire lives underneath the earth never seeing sunlight save for a few moments. Even in slumber did the song reach her, it whispered secrets and knowledge just waiting to be grasped if only someone would listen.

Idril's spines flared at the soft touch to her head making it disappear and she turned towards the source to find Vali staring at her. Shame slipped through her, she dropped her spines letting out a regretful sound and bowing her head earning a soft laugh. Vali touching her chin, "Don't be like that, Idril. I startled you after all, so you're well within your rights to react like that," She peeked up at her trainer and nodded slowly, "You've been meditating a lot since you evolved a few days ago, you know?" She nodded slowly, "Elrond told me it has to do with some new sense that has developed since evolving. It's pretty distracting."

Idril cooed as she shuffled a bit and tried to figure out how to make her trainer understand. Elrond spoke from somewhere in her mind which was still unsettling despite the Alolan Raichu having evolved months ago, " _I'll explain it. Just send me what you want explained."_

Vali's eyes gained a slight glow that indicated Elrond speaking to her before she looked back at Idril blinking as the emerald green eyes cleared, "So you can hear the earth's actual voice? Or something close to it?" Idril nodded slowly earning an excited look from Vali, "Is that why the earth acted the way it did when you evolved?" Idril nodded wondering why she's so excited, "That's amazing, Idril. If we train you just right, you'll be able to sense where any enemies are within the earth and deal with them without even needing to actually move."

It was possible. Idril had heard the earth singing of such things, but it would take a lot of time. Did they have that time? Vali's eyes glowed briefly before she shrugged, "We have all the time in the world, Idril. You don't need to get it immediately, or even very soon, I only care about you being able to do well with your new abilities."

Idril's spikes quivered and Vali set a hand on her head, "We'll work through this together, Idril. I'll make sure you become as strong as possible."

Leaning into the touch, Idril mentally shook her head at Vali. Strength wasn't what she wanted, she just wanted to be with the family that had taken her in during those hunger filled days spent wandering the tunnels.

* * *

Litwick sat on Vali's shoulder looking around at everyone they passed in curiosity likely never having seen so many people before. Houndour was in much the same position barely managing to keep herself from rushing away from her 'mother's' side, the mass of new people and scents likely confusing the puppy's sense of smell. Vulpix wrapping one of his tails around Houndour's neck helped ground the puppy. Eevee sat on Elrond's head as the Alolan Raichu floated on Vali's right side. They were getting some supplies from Celadon which was pretty much dead when it came to most trainers since everyone was either in Vermilion, Saffron, Cinnabar, or Viridian trying to get their final badge during the last few days before the tournament. Even with the lack of trainers, Celadon was still very crowded.

Elrond spoke as they walked towards one of the parks, " _What else do we need? We've already gotten everything at the Department Store?"_

"Delia wanted me to pick up an instrument for Ash to try out," Vali answered as she walked towards where Erika had told her a good music store was, "Other than that, I figured we'd wander around for awhile afterward. You know enjoy our day off of training since we've been working so hard for the Conference,"

They soon reached the store Erika had suggested, but Vali couldn't find any instruments that she felt Ash would enjoy using. She did pick up some beginner music books though. She ended up finding her way into an junk store though had to return Houndour since the puppy wouldn't settle down. Walking among the dusty junk store partially hidden among the less popular shops off the main strip, she felt a sense of relief to be away from the rushing tourists and citizens. Litwick looked around at all the human things in curiosity often making her pause to tell the little ghost what each thing was. Smiling at how curious the little ghost was, she had no trouble taking the time to do it.

Vali ended up finding a six holed ocarina that she could see Ash playing. Thankfully she had a book for that, the ocarina was a simple instrument to learn after and Ash would probably enjoy it once he started to learn. Somewhere in the back of her mind something thrummed happily as she paid for the ocarina, she counted it as a win.

* * *

Vali looked over each of her pokemon with a grin, "Tomorrow we'll be leaving for the Indigo Plateau, guys. The Conference will begin in a few days. So I've decided to mark down our progress via scanning each of you with the pokedex, okay?"

Noises of agreement rang out, Smaug stepped up first with a smug grin. Giggling softly, Vali scanned him with her pokedex.

 _Charizard, the flame pokemon._ _Charizard flies around the sky in search of powerful opponents. It breathes fire of such great heat that it melts anything. However, it never turns its fiery breath on any opponent weaker than itself. When expelling a blast of super-hot fire, the red flame at the tip of its tail burns more intensely. Its wings can carry this Pokémon close to an altitude of 4,600 feet. It is said that Charizard's fire burns hotter if it has experienced harsh battles. Often in the wilds, Charizard within their prime will search out strong opponents to test itself against._

 _This Charizard is Male and has the ability Blaze. This Charizard knows_ _Growl, Scratch, Ember, Dragon Pulse, Smokescreen, Metal Claw, Fire Fang, Dragon Rage, Scary Face, Fire Punch, Iron Tail, Flamethrower, Sunny Day, Toxic, Slash, Wing Attack, Air Slash, Steel Wing_

Vali grinned at Smaug who's smug expression had grown, "Nicely done, Smaug. While Hyper Beam isn't on the list, we'll get it there."

Balto stepped up next giving her a light look and she scanned him.

 _Arcanine, the legendary pokemon._ _Arcanine is known for its high speed. It is said to be capable of running over 6,200 miles in a single day and night. The fire that blazes wildly within this Pokemon's body is its source of power. Its magnificent bark conveys a sense of majesty. Anyone hearing it can't help but grovel before it. A Pokémon that has long been admired for its beauty. It runs agilely as if on wings. Its proud and regal appearance has captured the hearts of people since long ago. Many trainers seek this great pokemon out as a member of their teams for the great loyalty they boast, an Arcanine will only accept a single trainer in their life-time._

 _This Arcanine is Male and has the ability Flash Fire. This Arcanine knows Bite, Roar, Ember, Leer, Odor Sleuth, Helping hand, Morning Sun, Iron Tail, Dig, Fire Fang, Reversal, Flame Wheel, Protect, Sunny Day, Double Team, Flamethrower, Heat Wave, Flare Blitz, Agility, Extreme Speed, Toxic, Hyper Beam, Solar Beam, Aerial Ace, Thunder Fang, Swift, Teleport_

Vali grinned at Balto proudly, "Well done, Balto. Teleport is a surprise though."

Balto gave a slight shrug and Elrond spoke up, " _Alakazam assisted him with Balto's agreement."_

"We'll figure out how to add it into our plans," Vali told him earning a nod and Celina fluttered forward prompting her to scan the Pidgeot.

 _Pidgeot, the ti_ _ny bird Pokémon._ _This Pokémon has a dazzling plumage of beautifully glossy feathers. Many Trainers are captivated by the striking beauty of the feathers on its head, compelling them to choose Pidgeot as their Pokémon._ _It spreads its gorgeous wings widely to intimidate enemies. It races through the skies at Mach-2 speed. When hunting, it skims the surface of water at high speed to pick off unwary prey such as Magikarp. By flapping its wings with all its might, Pidgeot can make a gust of wind capable of bending tall trees. Its well-developed chest muscles make it strong enough to whip up a gusty windstorm with just a few flaps._

 _This Pidgeot is female and has the ability Keen eye. This Pidgeot knows the moves_ _Tackle, Sand Attack, Gust, Steel Wing, Quick Attack, Aerial Ace, Swift, Feather Dance, Air Slash, Agility, Twister, Hyper Beam, Aerial Ace, Roost, Tailwind, Hurricane._

"I'm glad that you finally figured out both Tailwind and Hurricane, Celina, even if it meant Mirror Move had to be ignored for the moment," Vali congratulated her Pidgeot who looked proud of herself, "But we'll figure it out eventually,"

Celina inclined her head with a soft coo before moving aside as Elrond floated forward.

 _Alolan Raichu, the Mouse Pokemon._ _It uses psychokinesis to control electricity. It hops aboard its own tail, using psychic power to lift the tail and move about while riding it. It focuses psychic energy into its tail and rides it like it's surfing. Another name for this Pokémon is "hodad." When you rub its cheeks, a sweet fragrance comes wafting out. However, you'll also get a light shock! It loves pancakes prepared with a secret Alolan recipe. Some wonder whether that recipe holds the key to this Pokémon's evolution. While once thought to only evolve in the Alola Region, a Pikachu from Alola was recently documented to have evolved in Kanto._

 _This Alolan Raichu is male and has the ability Surge Surfer. This Alolan Raichu knows the moves_ _Tail Whip, Thunder Shock, Growl, Play Nice, Quick Attack, Thunder Punch, Electric Terrain, Dig, Iron Tail, Electro Ball, Thunder Bolt, Thunder Wave, Double Team, Discharge, Spark, Nuzzle, Agility, Thunder, Slam, Wild Charge, Psychic, Grass Knot, Calm Mind_

"Elrond, we'll work on Teleport after the Conference," Vali decided since Elrond didn't need to strain himself anymore than he already had and adding Teleport into their strategy right before a big event would cause unneeded trouble.

Elrond nodded and Idril stepped forward with quivering spines.

 _Sandslash, the Mouse Pokemon. Sandslash can roll up its body as if it were a ball covered with large spikes. In battle, this Pokémon will try to make the foe flinch by jabbing it with its spines. It then leaps at the stunned foe to tear wildly with its sharp claws. Although they are sharp, its claws and spikes often break off. They grow back the next day, so it is not bothered by the temporary loss. It uses its claws to climb trees and then curls its body into a spiny ball, ready to drop onto any prey that appears. Thanks to its thick claws, it's good at climbing trees. There are plenty of Sandslash that park themselves in trees and go right to sleep. This pokemon's old claws and spines are often used to carve plows for fields, a company often pays young trainers to find them._

 _This Sandslash is female and has the ability Sand Veil. This Sandslash knows the moves Defense Curl, Scratch, Night Slash, Slash, Dig, Mud Slap, Protect, Shadow Claw, Poison Sting, Roll-Out, Fury Swipes, Swift, Gyro Ball_

"Good work, Idril," Vali was proud of her newly evolved Sandslash.

Idril beamed at her as she stepped back to allow Arwen forward.

 _Ponyta, the_ _Fire Horse Pokemon. Ponyta is very weak at birth. It can barely stand up. This Pokémon becomes stronger by stumbling and falling to keep up with its parent. It runs in fields and mountains all day. Its hind legs, which have hooves that are harder than diamond, kick back at any presence it senses behind it._

 _This Ponyta is Female and has the ability Flame Body. This Ponyta knows_ _Growl, Tackle, Tail Whip, Ember, Flame Wheel, High Horsepower, Toxic, Protect, Flame Charge, Agility, Solar Beam, Bounce, Iron Tail, Swift._

Vali still didn't know how Iron Tail worked with the Ponyta-line, "Nice work on all three, Arwen."

Arwen nickered happily and stepped back to let Terra forward. Terra looked at Vali with a slight grin.

 _Larvitar, the Rock Skin Pokemon._ _Larvitar is born deep under the ground. To come up to the surface, this Pokémon must eat its way through the soil above. Until it does so, Larvitar cannot see its parents. Raised on nutrients it finds in the dirt, it eats roughly a mountain's worth of dirt before it becomes a pupa._

 _This Larvitar is Female and has the ability Guts*. This Larvitar knows_ _Bite, Leer, Sandstorm, Outrage, Ancient Power, Substitute, Toxic, Screech, and Sunny Day._

"We'll keep working on Dark Pulse, Terra. You'll get it soon," Vali promised feeling just a small amount of disappointment at not seeing the move on the list.

Terra nodded with a hopeful expression as she stepped backward and Pele moved forward.

 _Numel, the Numb Pokemon._ _Numel is extremely dull witted—it doesn't notice being hit. However, it can't stand hunger for even a second. This pokemon's body is a seething cauldron of boiling magma. The magma in its body reaches 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit. Its hump gets smaller when it uses Fire-type moves. If it gets wet, the magma cools and hardens. In that event, the pokemon's body grows heavy and its movements become sluggish. It is a hardy pokemon that can transport a 220-pound load. It has served humans at work since long ago._

 _This Numel is Female and has the ability Oblivious. This Numel knows the moves Growl, Tackle, Ember, Focus Energy, Magnitude, Earth Power, Heat Wave, Flamethrower, Toxic, Protect, Double Team, Lava Plume, Mud-Slap._

"Now we have two new ways to attack people with your our combinations," Vali grinned at Pele who just smiled up at her.

Pippin made his way forward barely stumbling as he bumped against Pele.

 _Luxio, the Spark Pokemon._ _Strong electricity courses through the tips of its sharp claws, a light scratch causes fainting in foes. By gathering their tails together, they collectively generate powerful electricity from their claws. It rests its forelegs on others to communicate with rhythmic electric pulses from its claws._

 _This Luxio is Male and has the ability Intimidate. This Luxio knows_ _Tackle, Leer, Charge, Baby-Doll Eyes, Spark, Bite, Ice Fang, Thunder, Thunder Wave, Thunder Fang, Shock Wave, and Wilde Charge._

Granted the Wilde Charge wasn't completely up to standards, Pippin could use it properly without fail. Smiling at Pippin, Vali announced, "Looks like your hard work has paid off, Pippin. You've learned Wilde Charge and can use it for the most part without tripping."

Pippin's head rose up proudly as he moved back to allow Empress forward.

 _Bagon, the Rock Head Pokemon. Bagon has a dream of one day soaring in the sky. In doomed efforts to fly, this Pokémon hurls itself off cliffs. As a result of its dives, its head has grown tough and as hard as tempered steel. In an attempt to dispel its frustration, it will slams its hard head against huge rocks and shatters them into pebbles. Some theories suggest that its behavior of forcefully bashing its head into things stimulates cells that affect its evolution._

 _This Bagon is Female and has the ability Rock Head. This Bagon knows Rage, Ember, Headbutt, Dragon Rush, Fire Fang, Bite, Dragon Pulse._

Dragon Pulse had been taught to Empress by Dragonite mostly to keep Smaug from murdering the Bagon when she got too annoying, Vali had thanked her for the gift, "Nice work on learning Dragon Pulse in such a short time, Empress."

Empress let out a pleased growl and moved aside for Aragorn.

 _Vulpix, the_ _Fox Pokemon. At the time of its birth, Vulpix has one white tail. The tail separates into six if this Pokémon receives plenty of love from its Trainer. The six tails become magnificently curled. Inside Vulpix's body burns a flame that never goes out. During the daytime, when the temperatures rise, this Pokémon releases flames from its mouth to prevent its body from growing too hot._

 _This Vulpix is Male and has the ability Flash Fire. This Vulpix knows Ember, Secret Power, Heat Wave, Baby-Doll Eyes, Sunny Day, Will-o-Wisp._

Professor Oak had suggested the last one and Litwick had assisted Aragorn in learning how to use Will-o-Wisp. Though Vali could have done without being given a minor heart attack when the two had disappeared for a few hours only to return with blood covering Aragorn's snout, it appeared that the ghost-like nature of the Will-o-Wisp required experience with deathly energies which meant Aragorn had ended up hunting and killing a Rattata. It had taken a little while for Aragorn to return to normal after that since he regretted doing the deed quite a bit. Smiling down at him, she told Aragorn, "Well Done, Aragorn. I might end up using you for a match. If not, I'll see if we can find people to battle."

Aragorn wagged his tail happily letting out a bark. Eevee stepped forward and Vali scanned him.

 _Eevee, the E_ _volution Pokemon. Eevee has an unstable genetic makeup that suddenly mutates due to the environment in which it lives. Radiation from various stones causes this Pokémon to evolve. It has the ability to alter the composition of its body to suit its surrounding environment. Current studies show it can evolve into an incredible eight different species of Pokémon._

 _This Eevee is Male and has the ability Adaptability. This Eevee knows Covet, Growl, Tackle, Sand Attack, Bite, Swift, Stored Power, Endure, Shadow Ball, Baby-Doll Eyes, Iron Tail, Dig._

"Good work, Eevee," Vali bent down to pet him gently, "You're doing awesome,"

Eevee stared up at her with a slightly pleased look in his eyes and leaned slowly into her touch before moving away. Vali looked at both Houndour and Litwick who looked at the pokedex in curiosity. She'd explained it before to them. She scanned Houndour first.

 _Houndour, the dark pokemon._ _Houndour hunt as a coordinated pack. They communicate with each other using a variety of cries to corner their prey. This Pokémon's remarkable teamwork is unparalleled. When it becomes your partner, it's very loyal to you as its Trainer and will obey your orders. They make repeated eerie howls before dawn to call attention to their pack._

 _This Houndour is Female and has the ability Early Bird. This Houndour knows Ember, Leer, Howl, Fire Fang, Pursuit._

"Not a bad move set to start out with, Houndour," Vali told the pup who looked a bit confused, "In a few weeks, we'll start working on you learning how to battle just like everyone else,"

Litwick hopped forward looking a bit more eager and curious than before earning a soft giggle from Vali.

 _Litwick, the candle pokemon. Li_ _twick shines a light that absorbs the life energy of people and Pokémon, which becomes the fuel that it burns. While shining a light and pretending to be a guide, it leeches off the life force of any who follow it. Some Litwick usually keep their flames out though this means they require more pokemon food than most of their species to make up for their lost energy._

 _This Litwick is Female and has the ability Flash Fire. This Litwick knows Astonish, Ember, Minimize, Smog, Confuse Way, Will-o-Wisp, Haze._

"Nice move set, Litwick," Vali praised earning a cheerful coo as Litwick danced.

* * *

A knock sounded on Vali's door as she packed her bag for the Conference feeling very glad that food, housing, and healing was all on the League. Elrond opened the door to let Delia in, "Packing, Vali?"

"Just got a couple more things to pack up, I've still got a lot of room since I don't have to worry about food or healing stuff," Vali folded one of her last few shirts and a scarf, "I think I'll probably make some extra treats and stuff. Maybe pick up an extra grooming kit, I should probably get some extra disposable cameras and film for them since there's going to be a lot of picture opportunities there,"

Not having to pack around an egg case helped, Vali inwardly grinned as she thought about Houndour's ultra ball. Delia giggled softly, "Got everything figured out then?"

"Mostly?" Vali wouldn't have any actual information about the Conference until after Opening Ceremonies the the day after tomorrow, "What's up? Is Sirius coming home?"

"Not just yet, he'll actually be meeting up with us at the Conference in a few days once the first round is over," Delia answered as she reached the bed, "I brought you this,"

Vali put the shirt she'd folded into her backpack and took what Delia was holding out. It turned out to be a long black scarf with green flames stitched into the edges. The fabric was soft against her skin and incredibly light weight, "Delia, you made me a scarf?"

"I would have made you a jacket, but you don't really wear them," Delia told her with a soft smile, "You do wear a scarf even during the summer. As this is your first Conference and your old scarf is becoming really worn, I decided to make this one for you. I made sure that you would be able to use it to block out any dirt or dust,"

"Delia, thank you," Vali felt touched by the gesture, "You didn't have to do this,"

"I wanted to," Delia hugged Vali gently, "You're one of my children after all,"

Vali hugged Delia back feeling grateful that the woman never tried to push to be called mom. One day, she would call Delia mom, but it just didn't feel right yet.

* * *

Professor Oak had his Alakazam teleport Vali to the Conference with a newly upgraded carry limit of twelve pokemon. The League had granted her this as a way of apologizing for any danger and 'damage' caused by the Lavender Town incident. This was under the assumption that she'd make it into the top 16 if not higher, she would revert to the usual carry limit if she didn't get that high. There was an unspoken demand and warning attached to this, she wasn't too stupid to realize what it meant. It was an uncomfortable feeling knowing that the League was looking at her more than they had before. No one knew the true extent of what actually happened outside of the Champion, Elite Four, Professor Oak, the Leader of the Rangers, and the Leader of the Ace Trainers. Regardless of the fact the incident would have black marks to blot out true information, she had the Leagues attention even if most people didn't really know who she was.

Alakazam tapped her shoulder when the appeared as a ghost of warmth came from the psychic energy the pokemon usually gave off when contacting Vali, " _Good luck."_

Alakazam disappeared without another word, but Vali didn't need to hear anything else. Those two words were enough to send warmth running through her and banish the slight chill brought on by the unease her thoughts had brought, she smiled while looking around taking her first look at the visitor area of the Indigo Plateau. Standing on the largest set of stairs she'd ever been on, the visitors area began with a pokemon center just as it rightly should. The pokemon center was far larger than anything she'd ever seen before actually resembling an actual hospital with pokemon proportions in kept in mind. Just behind it, she could see the stadium standing in the distance sending a thrill through her. Without much though, she released Elrond, "We're here, Elrond. The Indigo Plateau."

Elrond looked around likely taking in as much as possible to ensure their family would be able to see everything when he sent the information to them later on, " _Pokemon Center?"_

"I decided to release you first," Vali told him, "Let's go check in,"

Elrond nodded as curiosity seeped through their bond, " _Not going to release Aragorn?"_

"I was actually thinking of releasing Balto since the Pokemon Center is big enough that I can," Vali pulled out Balto's pokeball, "I think I'll leave Aragorn in his pokeball for the moment. We're only allowed to have two pokemon out before checking in," Elrond nodded slowly in understanding as Vali released Balto who looked around them curiously, "Balto, we've made it to the Indigo Plateau. We're going to check in and get everything settled,"

Balto let out a soft woof and nudged her. They started marking their way towards the Pokemon Center passing by both people and pokemon. A few news crews were already set up getting ready to cover the Conference. A few were speaking to some of the trainers that had been at the Conference last year though they all glanced at Vali as she passed them by mostly likely due to Balto and Elrond. Four Nurse Joys manned the desk at the current moment, but there was room for a few more if things got busy. She made her way over to one and was greeted with a warm smile, "Hi, My name is Valkyrie Potter-Black from Pallet Town. I'm here to check in."

Vali produced her pokedex without any prompting and handed it over alongside her badge case. Nurse Joy took them with a light smile, "One moment please. Do your pokemon require any healing?"

"No, Professor Oak gave them a thorough check up and healing yesterday," Vali curled her fingers through Balto's fur, "Are there any rules I need to follow?"

Nurse Joy nodded, "Your Arcanine is the largest pokemon you're allowed to have outside its pokemon within this building. Try to refrain from having more than three pokemon outside their pokeballs, we don't want to be over-run after all. No practicing moves like Rain Dance or Hyper Beam, we do not have any train areas open to the public for them. Other than that, a list of rules will be provided. We expect you to be courteous to any roommates you'll have for the duration of the Conference."

"Of course," Vali wondered who her roommates would be.

"And done," Nurse Joy handed back her pokedex and badge case alongside a key card, "You'll be staying in cottage thirty-two with a Mister Lance Blackthorn and Mister Steven Stone,"

Vali's eyes widened not having known either of them were at the Indigo Plateau yet. She supposed that saved time though, "Thank you."

Nurse Joy handed her a map and a guide book that would hopefully prevent them from getting lost. Elrond spoke as Vali led them out of the Pokemon Center and towards the area where the cottages were settled, " _All we need to do is find Zaria and we'll have found everyone."_

"She's probably getting through the battle royal," Vali reminded him frowning down at the map, "Everyone who didn't get all eight badges from the top gyms have to go through it to get a place in the Conference. Only the top 100 can pass through to actually battle in the Conference," Vali looked at the street signs before shaking her head, "Balto," He perked up, "Can you find Steven and Lance's scents for me? We need to find a building with both their scents in it. Just theirs, okay?"

Balto nodded and bent down to sniff the ground with his ears flicking back. He twitched his nose before raising his head with a soft bark and twitch of the tail. He began padding forward with Vali and Elrond following behind him. Balto led them to an area with rows of cottages each with a number sitting on a mail box in front of it. Each was rather simple with a small garden and fence, they were somewhat uniform being a light cream color with a simple brown boarder. They reached the cottage marked with '32'. Hugging Balto around the neck, she thanked him and opened the gate. Using her key-card to unlock the door, she entered the cottage with Balto and Elrond following behind her.

Neither Lance nor Steven were in the Cottage, it was likely the two were exploring the Indigo Plateau. Rather than let it disappoint her, she unpacked her things before releasing Aragorn and going out to explore as well.

* * *

"Vali!" Zaria pounced on the fire-type master-in-training, "There you are!"

"Hey, Zaria," Vali smiled lightly as she hugged the dark-type trainer in return, "How's the battle royal?"

"Harsh, but we're pulling through. We're keeping in the top fifty despite taking some injuries," Zaria sighed deeply, "I'm just glad we're getting a small break and that we've only got another two hours worth of battling to get through,"

"Then you'll get tomorrow to recover from the intense battling," Vali recalled from what Professor Oak said, "Thanks to the Opening Ceremony and Festival,"

"Yeah. So who're you bunking with?" Zaria asked curiously, "I'm stuck with an air head that's going to get tossed out and a dude that keeps shouting Extreme every time he talks,"

"Lance and Steven," Vali was very glad those two were her roommates rather than Zaria's.

Zaria gave her a glare, "Lucky," The mocha skinned girl looked around in confusion, "Where are they?"

"No idea. They weren't at the cottage when I arrived," Vali said as Zaria released her, "I've mostly been exploring and taking pictures. Even if we're only seeing the visitors section of this place, it's huge. I've already seen six diffrent news crews,"

"Eight for me," Zaria patted Balto's head and rubbed between Aragorn's ears, "Oh cool, he's got his second tail. Where's the egg case?"

"She hatched," Vali grinned at Zaria's excited look, "You can meet her later. She's currently sleeping off a bunch of treats that Delia and I were seeing if she'd like the taste of," Most of her pokemon were, "I have another new pokemon as well. You can meet her later too. She's unlikely to be a battler,"

"Contest pokemon?" Zaria looked a bit curious, "Didn't think I'd see you with one of those, but every pokemon is diffrent. Want to grab a bite to eat? I'm starving and my pokemon'll be fed by their doctors,"

"Sure," Vali had been planning on finding a food place soon.

* * *

Vali finally got to see Steven and Lance when she finally got back to the cottage after seeing Zaria off to the battle royals. She was first greeted by Mawile who squealed and hugged her around the waist. Smiling warmly, she bent awkwardly to hug the adorable steel/fairy-type, "Hey, Mawile. Enjoy the tunnels?"

Mawile nodded against her stomach giggling as she snuggled close. Someone peaked out from around the corner of the hallway and called out, "Vali?"

"The one and only," Vali looked up and grinned at Steven, "Looks like we're going to be roommates for the Conference,"

"Looks like it," Steven grinned back looking a tired, "When'd you get here?"

"A few hours ago. I've been exploring and met up with Zaria when she got a small break from the Battle Royal," Vali was released by Mawile who greeted Aragorn and Balto happily while Elrond floated over to greet Steven while she removed her shoes, "I was a little surprised to find out that Lance and you were already here. When did you arrive?"

"A little after dawn," Steven answered as he reached up and rubbed Elrond's forehead earning a soft purr from the Raichu, "Lance arrived not long after me. He isn't back, but he should be soon. Did you eat lunch?"

"With Zaria," Vali dropped her shoes and padded towards where Steven was standing to hug him, "It's good to see you, Steven,"

"You too, Vali," Steven hugged her back tightly, "Are you doing okay?"

"I'm still tired, but I'll be back to my usual soon," Vali released him as Aragorn pushed between them to greet Steven earning light grins, "You look tired,"

"I feel tired," Steven admitted as he bent down to greet Aragorn, "So Aragorn's his name now?" Aragorn's chest puffed up as his tails flicked out, "His second tail came in beautifully,"

They headed to the living room area of the cottage and sat down with Vali dropping onto one of the couch. Steven sat down beside her as Mawile, Balto, Aragorn, and Elrond began talking to one another. She pulled out her camera and began showing Steven the pictures she'd been taking glad to actually talk with him without being interrupted due to signal loss. Steven pointed out places he'd visited and even pulled out his pokenav to show a few pictures as well. He even showed her a picture of a Clefairy that he'd taken in the tunnels. While a bit blurry and dark, no one would ever be able to doubt it was a Clefairy. She cooed over the fairy type wishing for the first time they'd been able to go deeper into the tunnels if only to find one. Not to catch, she wasn't sure if a member of the Clefairy-line would suit her, but to take pictures of.

* * *

"Vali!" Lance grinned brightly as he caught sight of Vali sitting beside Steven, "You're our roomie?"

"Yup," Vali raised a hand as Aragorn lept off the couch beside her to greet Lance earning a bark of laughter, "Got here a few hours ago, you two weren't here, so I dropped my stuff of and went to explore. I ended up meeting up with Zaria as I did so and ended up getting lunch,"

"She's participating in the Battle Royal, isn't she?" Lance dropped down to mess with Aragorn.

"Yeah and she's managing to stay in the 50th place which is pretty good since its been non-stop since they started," Vali dropped her hand as Steven got up and headed for the kitchen, "I'm really hoping we get to battle during the Conference,"

"I hope we do," Lance grinned at her, "I really want to test one of my future elite four,"

Vali snorted softly as Steven returned with two cans of lemonade and handed her one, "I'm hoping to watch you two battle in real time rather than through a video."

Lance stood up with Aragorn in his arms and a cocky grin on his face, "I'll win again."

"We'll see," Steven snorted softly.

The two had a small staring contest before Steven's pokenav went off, "I've got to take this."

Steven left the room and Lance walked over to drop Aragorn onto Vali's lap, "How've you been? I heard through the grapevine you were part of the Lavender Town incident as well."

Vali wasn't as shocked as she should've been that Lance had been a participant, but the fact he knew she'd been part of it was surprising. She had to wonder if it was due to her age that it got out, "I'm fine. How did you know I was involved?"

"You're the only ten year old girl I know that would be recommended by both Blaine and Surge," Lance told her as he took a seat on the love-seat and she finally caught sight of his Dratini curled around his shoulders, "Not to mention I saw you walking up to the command tent with Agatha. Took me a moment recognize you without any pokemon, you always had Balto or Elrond around if not Vulpi-"

Aragorn interrupted him with a bark earning a confused look and Vali told Lance, "Vulpix earned the chance for a nickname and chose Aragorn."

"Nice," Lance congratulated Aragorn before saying, "It's weird when you don't have any pokemon around you,"

"Try living in a place without any and suddenly coming to one with some," Vali replied earning a wide eyed look, "Before Siri and I came to Kanto, we lived in a place like that. I never want to go back to that,"

"I can't imagine a place like that," Lance looked like he couldn't believe a word she was saying.

"After living in Kanto, I can see why," Vali hugged Aragorn who leaned against her as Elrond sank into her side likely feeling the slight drop in her good move, "So where did you spend your time until the Conference?"

Lance shook his head softly and smiled as he reached up to pet Dratini, "In Blackthorn City, my mother wanted me home and I wanted to spend some time training with my clan. I also wanted to see my cousin off on her journey."

"I thought the Johto gyms were closed," Vali said with some confusion.

"They are since Johto is holding it's Silver Conference right now, but Clair wanted to get a head start on actually training," Lance chuckled softly, "She wants to become the next Blackthorn Gym Leader, so doing the whole Gym Circuit isn't really that important to her,"

Lance could have been a Gym Leader if he didn't want to be a Champion. It was an interesting thought. Steven returned with a slight smile on his face, "My father called."

"How is he?" Vali asked him.

"He's well," Steven put his phone away, "He's actually here at the Indigo Plateau,"

"He's early. The Conference doesn't open until tomorrow," Lance said with a raised eyebrow.

"He knows, but he wanted to meet my friends," Steven said looking at Vali, "He wants to meet you mostly, Vali,"

"He wants to meet me?" Vali wasn't that surprised since she'd been his son's traveling partner for almost 11 months, "Now?"

Steven shook his head, "In a few hours for dinner," He looked at Lance, "You're invited as well. Zaria too if we can find her."

"She's supposed to text me once the Battle Royal is over," Vali told Steven after taking a drink from her lemonade, "What kind of restaurant are we eating at? Nothing too nice, right? I don't own anything really nice,"

"Don't worry, you can wear whatever so long as it isn't completely travel worn," Steven waved off her concern, "What you're wearing now would be fine,"

Vali looked over her clothes before shaking her head, "I'll probably change into something else. That reminds me, do you guys want to wander around the festival together tomorrow? Go as a group with Zaria and I?"

"Sure," Lance agreed with a grin, "Sounds like a plan,"

"I'd like that," Steven's hand dropped to his pokeball belt, "I think Metagross would like it as well,"

* * *

Shane's was one of the higher class restaurants, but it tended to cater more towards trainers mostly due to the owner being a former trainer himself. So Vali didn't feel under dressed in her t-shirt, scarf, pants, and tennis shoes, Zaria was in much the same position though the other girl hadn't had a chance to shower since she'd needed to drop her pokemon off with Nurse Joy. Steven spoke to the head waiter who quickly led them to a private room where his father waited, "Steven! How are you?"

"Father," Steven smiled and greeted his father with a hug, "I told you earlier on the phone. I'm well,"

"That was on the phone, but this is the first time I've seen you in person in months," Joseph Stone retorted.

Vali smiled lightly as the two seemed to devolved into what seemed to be their normal personal greetings and focused on observing Joseph Stone. He was shorter than Steven and thicker bodied with two toned hair. The top was a pale gray and the bottom a dark almost charcoal color. He had dark eyes almost black in color which meant Steven must've gotten his hair and eye color from his mother. Joseph wore a light grey suit and sensible shoes. He released a soft chuckle, "Now, I think we should get on with introductions, Steven. I'm sure at least one of your friends is starving. Miss Zaria, was it?"

"Zaria Warner from Oblivia. Cocona Village," Zaria told him stepping forward, "This is my partner Zorua," Zorua yipped wagging his tail, "I'm trying to become a dark-type master,"

"Lance Blackthorn of the Blackthorn clan in Blackthorn City," Lance introduced himself, "I'd introduce my partner, but Garth is a bit too big. Dratini on the other hand is just the right size," Dratini trilled in greeting, "I'm going to become the united champion of both Kanto and Johto with Vali as one of my Elite Four,"

"Still not going to do you paperwork for you," Vali told him with a shake of her head and a soft snort before turning back to Joseph, "We've talked on the phone before, but I'm Valkyrie Potter-Black of Pallet Town here in Kanto. Please call me Vali, my partners are Balto and Smaug who're both too big. Elrond is just as much my partner as any of my pokemon," Elrond flicked his ear likely giving his own greeting, "It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Joseph,"

Joseph smiled warmly at Vali, "And you as well, Vali," He looked at Lance and Zaria, "It's a pleasure to finally meet both of you," He waved a hand at the table, "Sit down all of you, I want to hear about your journeys to this point. The ups, the downs, what you've enjoyed, and what you've disliked. I want to get to know you all."

* * *

Steven waved Lance, Vali, and Zaria off, "I'll catch up with you guys. I want to spend a bit more time with my father."

"Sure thing," Lance nodded as he reached up to run a finger across Dratini's head, "Have fun,"

"Yeah," Zaria said as she began headed for the Cottages with Lance.

Lance paused when he noticed Vali wasn't following after him and Steven gave her a look of confusion, "Vali?"

"I'm going to stay back a few moments actually," Vali said shoving her hands into her pockets as Elrond floated beside her, "I'll catch up with you two,"

Zaria shrugged while Lance gave Vali a searching look before nodding, "Sure."

The other two left in the direction of the Cottages with Vali watching them go. Steven frowned slightly, "Vali? What's going on?"

"I've been wanting to give you something and didn't have the best idea of when until now," Vali grinned at him, "Delia's been helping me put it together," Elrond moved his tail around and she pulled something off of it revealing a leather bound photo album, "I figured this would help you give your dad a more visual representation of our journey together,"

"Vali..." Steven's chest felt both tight and warm as she held the album out to him.

"On my days off from training with everyone, I spent time in Celadon and Cinnabar taking pictures," Vali explained in a light tone, "I ended up making a pretty penny which was put into getting this," He took the album from her, "I loved traveling with you, Steven. If we're able to travel again sometime, I'd love to,"

"Vali, you didn't have to do this," Steven looked at the album feeling the soft leather beneath his fingers.

"I wanted to," Vali looked away from him and smiled lightly, "Goodnight, Joseph. Thanks again for dinner, I hope we can go out again,"

"I do as well, Vali," Joseph smiled warmly at Vali, "It was a joy to dine with you,"

"I'll leave you to your night," Vali hugged him lightly, "See you later, Steven,"

Vali departed with Elrond floating beside her. Joseph smiled as he watched them go, "Vali is a wonderful girl, Steven."

"She is. She really is," Steven shook is head lightly and held up the journal, "Father, would you like to see some pictures of our journey? Vali put this together,"

"Did she?" Joseph's smile widened, "That's so nice of her,"

They began heading to his father's hotel and he glanced back through the crowd where he could barely see Vali walking. He smiled warmly as his hands held the journal just a bit more tightly. Spending the time he had today with Vali after Mount Moon's tunnels had been a breath of fresh air, he'd missed her more than he'd thought.

* * *

Looking around at all the trainers participating in the Indigo Conference, Vali felt a burst of nervousness and unease noticing many of those that had placed _high_ in the last Conferences. But it also sent a thrill of anticipation and excitement through her, they'd reached the point where they were standing on even ground with them for a even a single moment. And it would be the first step in becoming elites, she gripped Elrond's paw a bit tighter as his side of their bond hummed in agreement. Charles Goodshow spoke to everyone with the current champion, Alex Brown, offering a few words of his own before the torch bearer finally made their appearance and the immense torch was lit signifying the beginning of the Indigo Conference. Normally she would've paid it more mind especially since it was her first Conference, the pulsing of Fawkes' feather and slight increase of her inner flames' heat was a bit distracting. Steven spoke from beside her, "Kanto definitely has some showmanship."

"Mhmm," Zaria hummed in agreement, "It's one of the more interesting parts of watching these Conferences,"

"It is kind of cool to see it in real life," Lance murmured as he peered up at the flame.

Vali felt it a split second before the flames of the immense torch flared brightly. The arrival of something on Xen's level only linked to fire and seemed to call to her. The call seemed somewhat shielded and weakened as if it wasn't truly there. Everyone flinched back as the flames roared and flared brightly. When it faded, an immense fire-bird perched within the torch peering down at the humans and pokemon below. Moltres raised its wings and shrieked flaring its flames before settling down as if saying 'I'm here now, so you may proceed.'.

* * *

With Moltres present, the humans and pokemon seemed to go just a bit insane with celebrating it 'blessing the tournament'. Vali struggled to focus on enjoying the festival with everyone when her mind and eyes kept wandering back to where she knew Moltres was. She remembered the legendary's crimson amber eyes seemed to bore into the crowd search for something. She wondered what it had been looking for let alone doing in the Indigo Plateau. She pulled her eyes away from the stadium as Steven touched her shoulder, "Vali? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Vali looked at him with a sheepish smile, "Just a bit distracted,"

"Moltres?" Steven asked her with his eyes going to the stadium.

Vali nodded slowly, "Just the fact its here, the legendary I really want to meet one day is that close."

"Nothing else?" Steven asked her with a slight frown, "You were a bit spaced out this morning,"

"I'll explain later," Vali glanced around them and Steven nodded in understanding, "So I'm a bit distracted is all,"

* * *

Shadow-traveling was the ghost-type way of teleporting and even more unpleasant for humans especially inexperienced ones, it doubled when the shadow-travel was unexpected. Vali's soul felt like it'd half left her body and been twisted while being dipped in nitrogen. This all involved not being able to breath, it wasn't a fun way to travel nor one she'd be using even if Litwick showed potential to use it unless there was an emergency. This coupled with being kidnapped after returning to her room in the Cottage made it even worse, she cursed her luck even while struggling uselessly to breath.

Whatever pokemon kidnapped her left the shadowy ether into a place that felt like Cinnabar's Volcano, Vali was released as Fawkes' feather and her inner flame pulsed. She dropped to the ground almost bone less struggling to catch her breath as a voice she didn't think she'd hear again for awhile spoke, "Oh dear, I forgot how shadow-travel tends to effect those unused to it and unaligned to ghost-types. My apologies, Vali."

Vali regained her ability to breath and looked up to find Xen. His features were rather odd lit up by a fire coming from somewhere she couldn't see at the moment, "Xen, is every time we see each other going to involve me being kidnapped?"

"Hopefully not," Xen looked a bit sheepish, "I was summoned to bring you here,"

Vali did not like this, "Why?"

Xen gestured somewhere towards to the side and Vali turned her head to see Moltres nesting in the torch above staring down at her.


	21. Chapter 20 pt2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997: The tournament is being broken up between two chapters to make it easier on your author.**

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 **Lezaroth: It is always an honor to greet a new reader and welcome them to this story. I hope you stay with us, Vali, her pokemon family, and myself until the end of this long road we travel. It's going to get a bit crazy and there's going to be a lot of bumps. I'm not going to promise anything, but I hope you'll stick with us, but if not, I'm hoping you'll enjoy what you do end up reading.**

 **TheBlackSeaReaper: Welcome dear reader, It is always an honor to greet a new reader and welcome them to this story. I hope you stay with us, Vali, her pokemon family, and myself until the end of this long road we travel. It's going to get a bit crazy and there's going to be a lot of bumps. I'm not going to promise anything, but I hope you'll stick with us, but if not, I'm hoping you'll enjoy what you do end up reading. Steven will be the pairing in the end. Yes, but I cannot promise when it'll happen.**

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 **TwinTigerLover: I loved writing that part so much. I just had to write it and was planning it the moment I started writing out who I was pairing Vali up with in that chapter.**

 **Jessica: I know and I can't waiting to plan out those scenes especially when they ignore whoever it is.**

* * *

Chapter 20 Pt 2

* * *

Vali stared up at Moltres in a silent state of shock struggling to figure out if this was some kind of bizarre dream. The feeling of Fawkes feather pulsing wildly against her chest and the almost restless shifting of her inner flame pushing underneath her skin towards the legendary. The almost longing feeling that seemed to echo through her inner flame was startling. Xen spoke breaking through her shock, "This is of course not one of the true Moltres, merely one of the secondary version of them running around."

"Wait there are two true Moltres?" Vali asked latching onto something that would help keep her from totally freaking out over the fact a legendary was actually sitting not even a few feet from her.

Xen nodded giving her a look of understanding, "Same with the other members of the trio, you'll learn more later though it mostly deals with a balance kind of thing."

"Right," Vali looked at him slowly, "So why bring me here?"

"Since you're a fire-bearer, Moltres along with a lot of other fire-based legendaries are interested in you," Xen waved a hand at the Legendary with a sigh and shake of his head, "This young one just happened to be impatient," The legend let out a low shriek and gave Xen a glare earning an unimpressed look, "Don't give me that look, you are an impatient young one. I was there when you hatched, Flare. I was there when you first stared learning how to fly. Don't try to act all high and mighty with me, brat,"

Vali's shock at Xen's words double as Moltres' head dipped a bit and the legendary actually looked a bit sulky, it turned its head away for a moment. Vali burst out, "Wait! What?!"

"Legendaries hatch from eggs just like any other pokemon," Xen said as the two turned back to her, "I've seen a few hatch though not many since Legends don't have the highest birth rates. Flare's the youngest of the bunch being only 25 years old,"

Which only made more questions form within her mind begging to be answered, Vali looked up at the Moltres, Flare, as she asked, "So this one wanted to meet me?"

"That and there is a specific human she's hoping to find," Xen smirked lightly, "One that managed to catch her attention. Not as a bearer, but as a partner,"

"Partner?" Vali thought of her own pokemon family and gazed up at Flare, "Is there something unique about having a Legendary as a partner?"

Xen's smirk widened into a pleased grin as Flare the Moltres' eyes gleamed a bit, "Indeed. You could say that humans blessed with legends as partners are those destined to rule just as we bearers are destined to guide those we come across," Xen shoved his hands into his pockets, "Partners are gifted as we are though separately and I've never met one meaning I can't really say just how exactly it works. All I know is that their marked by their partners at some point during life. I do know that there are supposedly three partners this time around one for each legendary bird. One of the Zapdos marked his and I'd have guessed you had it not been for the fact you're a bearer."

Meaning you're only able to be a Partner or a Bearer never both, Vali was actually thankfully even if she did have to wonder what kind of legend would be her partner. Pushing that thought away, she asked, "So what all does that mean?"

"For now, it doesn't mean anything," Xen lost his smile and turned serious, "But once the Chosen One begins his journey and the newest age of chaos begins, everyone will be needed. The bearers will be needed to do their job in guiding those they can. The Partners will need to fight against the shadows and get things ready for when the Chosen One is ready for the final fight whenever that is,"

Vali's stomach dropped and she felt like someone had run their cold fingers down her spine at those words. A war was coming from Xen's words and there wasn't anything they could do to stop it. And even if some part of her balked at the thought of participating in it, she knew that there would be a need for her to fight. To protect both her pokemon and everyone they cared for, she'd do it. The resolve that thought filled her with seemed to settle her inner flames just a bit. She stood up a bit straighter which both the older beings in the room seemed to notice, "So that means we'll need to do a ton of training, right? Well that was the plan anyway, I'm the one who'll be training the Chosen One eventually once he or she reveals them-self, right?"

"Right," Xen eyed her with his lips slowly peeling back to revel a slow smile, "Not going to shout in denial about war?"

"The world I came from wasn't nice and my dreams haven't been that nice either," Vali looked back at Xen with a tired look, "My lucks made my journey pretty interesting letting me see a lot of things and nearly die a few times. Denying the bad stuff because of something as stupid as fear when I could be training and doing whatever I can possibly do to ensure my everyone I care for survives is something I'm never going to do, I refuse to do that to my pokemon family when they need me at my best,"

Xen offered her a light smile before turning his head, "Well, Flare? Did she pass?"

Flare the Moltres eyed Vali silently before dipping her beak in a nod.

* * *

Vali walked through the tunnel towards the field for her first match. She had decided to register Empress, Pele, and Elrond for the first match. The first was mostly to see how Empress did in a setting like this. Pele because she could definitely handle anything that came at her. Elrond could back them up on the off chance the first two got knocked out. As chancy as this was, Empress had really grown during their training especially underneath Professor Oak's Dragonite even if her move-pool was still a bit smaller than she'd prefer. The Bagon was ready to try her paw at a setting like this and they were in the first round which meant she'd be able to make up for it if Empress didn't do well.

Exiting into the sunlight, Vali was a little surprised to find just how rocky it was, but supposed that made sense given it was a rock field though she did kind of wish she'd chosen Terra as one of her pokemon if only to given the Larvitar an advantage. With a mental shrug, she looked at the other end of the field where her opponent was standing. The male across from her had a shock of bright white hair that fell to his shoulders in a mess of spikes save for a single streak of black that hung down by his right ear. He wore a pair of black head phone around his neck and a sleeveless black vest over a white long-sleeve. He wore a pair a tan cargo shorts and a pair of black combat boots. He looked at her curiously with pale silver eyes. The announcer began, "And now the start of the second battle on the rock field! On the green side of the field, one of the two new comers Allen Warner from Pastel Valley. On the red side of the field, our second new-comer Valkyrie Potter-Black of Pallet Town!" The audience cheered politely as she eyed the boy across from her carefully, "Each trainer is allowed only three pokemon. Now let the battle begin!"

Allen began the battle with a grin, "Let's show them our strength, Raticate!"

Vali eyed the Raticate carefully for a moment before inwardly nodding and taking out Empress' pokeball. Empress could handle that Raticate as far as she could tell and if not, she'd be able to withdraw the Bagon, "Come out and battle with me, my friend!"

Empress appeared with a loud cry earning shouts of surprise. Allen and Raticate both gave Vali an incredulous look as Empress looked around upon her release with the trainer asking, "Did you seriously just release a baby pokemon onto the field?"

"My Empress maybe small, but she is no baby," Vali retorted with a light grin, "Empress, you know what to do right?" Empress growled in agreement and happiness at finally getting to show off, "Then go for it, I believe in you,"

"Raticate, just finish that baby off quickly with a Hyper Fang," Allen looked at Vali with some disgust.

Vali rolled her eyes at him, but said nothing as she focused on Empress. Empress started off with the one attack her species was well known for, Headbutt, managing to disrupt Raticate's Hyper Fang while the over-side mouse was charging it up causing a miniature explosion. Empress kept going forward due to her heavy weight while Raticate was sent skidding backwards from the explosion and used the momentum to create a modified Dragon Rush as they'd practiced during their training. This basically made Empress into a modified missile as Raticate was finding out, the attack propelled the over-sized rat into a large boulder and even through it before Empress stopped powering it. Empress quickly backed off and shot off Ember towards Raticate to help create distance between them. This 'Dragon Missile' attack did some recoil damage which made the high natural defense of Empress' species such a wonderful thing, the Bagon still needed to get some breathing room after using it though since they were still working out some kinks.

Vali spoke as Raticate pulled itself slowly from the small indent it'd made in the second boulder Empress had sent it into, "Empress is no baby. She may look like one, but like many first evolution dragons, it doesn't mean anything. Empress," Empress growled softly not taking her eyes off of Raticate, "Keep it up, you're doing wonderfully."

Allen twitched a bit, "Raticate! Hyper Fang! Sucker Punch. Knock it out," He eyed her, "What was that move?"

Vali merely smiled as Raticate shook its head slowly to get rid of the cob webs before taking off towards Empress, "An original one. I'm sure you've got your own just as anyone would at this stage if they merely tried hard enough."

Empress had managed to increase her ability to charge up her Dragon Pulse, but it was no where near the second it took Professor Oak's Dragonite. That would likely only come when she was a Salamence and had mastered the attack, it was still quick enough that Vali could okay it for battle use. Empress used a mixture of Dragon Pulse and Ember to keep Raticate away while Headbutt/Dragon Missile was used to push the normal-type to the brink. Raticate didn't let the little dragon walk all over it though managing to score a few shallow bites and a single deeper one towards the end of the match that left her inwardly wincing. Not to mention using Shock Wave, she had to wonder why Allen hadn't had the mouse use it before the end though supposed it hadn't really occurred to him he'd need it until just then. In the end, the evolved pokemon fell to the unevolved dragon though it was a close one.

The referee raised his flag towards Vali, "Victory for red!"

The announcer spoke as Allen recalled his downed Raticate with a frown, "Now Allen Warner is down one pokemon. What pokemon will he use to battle her Bagon?"

Allen eyed Empress who was panting softly as Vali refrained from recalling her just yet. Empress wasn't in any true danger just yet though she'd need to see Nurse Joy once the battle was over no matter what. Using Dragon Missile multiple times so close together was taxing on the body even if said body was build to stand up against a lot of damage, she made a mental note to talk to the Nurse about contact Professor Oak about what he'd noticed when treating Empress since they'd begun training the move. Allen released his next pokemon, "You may have won against Raticate, but my Persian won't be so easily swept aside!"

Thickly corded muscles flexed and shifted with each movement the newly released feline made, the Persian peered at Empress almost dismissively earning a loud growl of anger. Empress still needed to work on not showing any outward signs of being bothered by her opponents when they acted like Persian, but that would come later. It was likely that Empress didn't even know that it was an act anyway, but Vali had been traveling too long to be fooled by such an act, she called out, "Empress, be on your guard. This one isn't like the other one, it's stronger," Empress froze a little before eyeing the Persian in a new light, "Empress, be careful. Please."

Empress growled softly before firing off a Dragon Pulse to start the battle once more after the Referee gave his call. Allen's Persian dodged the attack with fluid grace and sent a Dark Pulse back at Empress who barely managed to dodge the attack. Persian backed it up with a Shadow Ball and kept attacking in this manner barely allowing Empress a moment to breath let alone attack back. Empress managed a Dragon Pulse or Ember occasionally though mostly ended up hiding behind some of the boulders scattered around the field. Allen Spoke as Persian sent Empress flying Iron Tail and Feint Attack combo, "You should recall the baby dragon, it isn't going to be able to do much more. Persian was a gift to me from my Brother before I left on my journey. He'll keep going until it's knocked out or dead."

Vali's lips pulled into a slight frown and she looked at Empress who'd landed not far from her box. She looked into Empress' dark bluish grey eyes as her fingers curled around the Bagon's pokeball. Despite the long scratches coating the little dragons sky blue scales and dripping crimson onto the slate grey ground, a fire burned within the dragon's eyes. It was this desire that stilled her hand and pulled her lips into a soft smile. Nodding to Empress and giving into the little dragon's desire to prove herself, she said, "We're with you, Empress. Every single one of us."

* * *

Empress stared into Vali's, her treasure's, eyes as those words were spoken and felt the energy that had been building within her over the course of the last couple of months finally begin to surge. Pushing herself up, she turned back to the feline and bared her teeth with a roar as the energy burst forth alongside an onslaught of memories, strength, and pain.

Empress had been born second among four other hatchlings under a Salamence Dame and a Dragonite Sire though she rarely saw her mother after she'd hatched seeing as the Bagon-line tended to be more paternal. Sire had cared for her and ensure she'd been taken care of taking her to the Dragonair Colony once the winter had gone two seasons after her birth. There she'd lived with her cousins under the care of those annoying humans avoiding capture and feasting whenever possible, Sire rarely visited after awhile though that was due to the matriarch not wishing for a male Dragonite to be around outside of mating season. When she had become strong enough, she planned on traveling alongside him and perhaps finding her dame one day.

The Dragonair Colony did not like her very much. Most species disliked their non-same species kin, it was a well-known fact, but the Dragonair Colony had ensured she'd been able to survive however grudgingly that they'd done so. But pride could be a terrible thing especially when it comes to a dragon-type, she had spat on the grudging support of her sire's clan and struck out on her own once barely managing to survive. Death had been the fate that awaited her until she met Vali, the only human worth becoming her treasure. Trusting humans had never been something she'd been big on, they'd been an annoyance that had only ever been good for a quick meal or healing if she'd gotten hurt. Even Sire had rarely ever had something good to say about humans despite growing up within the Safari Zone where his clan had chosen their nesting grounds, it had become ingrained in her to dislike humans to the point of openly treating them with suspicion. Had she not been on the verge of collapsing with hunger, she wasn't sure if that would've changed.

While there were times Empress had trouble understanding what exactly went on in Vali's head or why the human acted as she did, she didn't regret ever forcing her way into becoming one of the human's pokemon. The other pokemon, even clumsy Pippin, were becoming dear enough to her that she wanted to protect them as well if only because of Vali. They were Vali's after all. Though she hadn't realized any of this until Vali had saved her that day on the boat, the human had risked everything to save her even when she'd been misbehaving so much and she'd gotten hurt doing it too. She regretted ever causing her treasure harm no matter how recently that realization had come to pass.

When it all faded away, Empress shook herself slowly as instinctive knowledge filled her mind. She looked at the feline across from herself and stepped forward only to pause. A calm realization struck her as she felt the heaviness of her body. She knew that she'd no longer be able to reach the speeds been able to before knowing that she wouldn't be able to move as quickly as before. Even if the damage from before had mostly healed and she'd be able to take a lot more damage, she was unsure if she'd be able to actually hit the feline especially without having a full grasp on her power now that she'd become something else. Rather than take that chance, she slowly turned towards her treasure and let out a soft warbling cry. Vali's eyes were filled with tears and a soft warmth , "Done for now, Empress?" Empress cooed in agreement, "Alright," She raised the pokeball, "Congratulations, my friend."

* * *

"Valkyrie Potter-Black has forfeited her newly evolved Shelgon," The announcer shouted.

Vali pressed her lips to Empress' pokeball murmuring a few more congratulations. They'd have to work hard to get Empress used to her new body. Placing Empress' pokeball in its' slot, she pulled out Pele's pokeball and released her, "Come out and battle with me, my friend!" Pele appeared with a soft coo, "Empress evolved, Pele. We'll be congratulating her later on once Nurse Joy releases her," Pele nodded with a pleased look, "For now, we need to focus on winning this battle against that Persian. You know what to do. Earth Defense!"

Allen looked confused as Pele created her patented box in the middle of the field, "You just trapped your own pokemon."

"Trapped isn't what I'd call it," Vali replied as Persian began prowling around the edges of Pele's defensive wall looking for a way inside other than the obvious.

Many watching the battle were in much the same position, they would soon realize the truth. Allen frowned at her words before shaking his head, "Persian, dig into their defense and knock that Numel out."

Vali smiled lightly as Persian burrowed into Pele's defensive wall. She called out, "Hot Pot!"

Hot Pot had become more refined in the month since her gym battle against Giovanni, Pele had learned how to restrain the pokemon she trapped within and could even control some of the intensity of the heat being used within it. Still needed some work, they were going to be working on it forever just like any good trainer. Persian's thick fur would work against it in the intense heat. Pele dropped the walls revealing a shivering and swaying Persian coated in sweat. A single Mud-Slap later saw the large cat collapsing earning a roar from the crowd. Allen stared at his unconscious pokemon in shock before looking up at Vali, "What was that?"

"An original technique," Vali replied with a shrug, "Good job, Pele! Our hard work has definitely paid off,"

Pele cooed raising her head proudly as the referee called out, "Mister Warner, you have ten seconds to recall and release your next pokemon. Or you'll forfeit the next match."

Allen shook his head and quickly recalled his Persian, "Right," He pulled out a worn pokeball and looked at Vali, "I won't lose this next match. Come out, Politoed!"

Vali mentally cursed as the water-type appeared even as she took in its appearance with some curiosity. She had rarely seen this evolution of the Poliwag-line usually seeing a Poliwrath if someone managed to get a third evolution seeing as Kings Rocks were fairly rare to find. They weren't the most powerful with most finding their homes by the sides of Coordinators, but if raised right, they could be powerful battlers. She might end up needing Elrond to win this battle, but there was no need to think about that now. Taking a deep breath to center herself and block out the distractions, she called out, "Pele, Umbrella!"

Pele quickly set up another defensive wall only this one was meant block water type attacks. The rocks would be super-heated creating a cloud of steam energizing Pele even if the water particles would cause a bit of pain. During their training, they'd spent time working on her endurance against water-type attacks mainly taking any pain caused by them during this time period. When she finally evolved into a Camerupt, the sheer heat she gave off would make most low-level water-type attacks like trying to use a toddlers squirt gun against a forest fire. Politoed let out a playful ribbit and jumped forward releasing a stream of bubbles that impacted Pele's Umbrella causing steam to explode outward.

Pele shifted backward with a wary grunt as steam flowed around the wall of earth and the orange aura of focus energy pulsed across her form as they'd practiced. Allen shouted, "Politoed, Rain Dance!"

"Heat Wave!" Vali retorted while mentally cursing at not teaching Pele Sunny Day.

Heat Wave would lessen the effects to a point if not completely, Vali sometimes hated not facing certain moves many times beforehand, but this wasn't the first time she'd had to figure things out on the fly. Based on the random splatters of water and the fact there was a true cloud forming within the sky, Allen had probably just taught his pokemon the move, but that didn't make it any less annoying. Politoed aimed another Bubble Beam at Pele who blocked it with a mound of slow moving earth. Pele sent a spike of earth towards Politoed who dodged quickly and sent an Ice beam in reply. The Ice Beam was dissolved by a pulse of heat that wasn't quite Heat Wave and Pele set off a Magnitude earning a croak of surprise from Politoed who lept up from his rocky perch nearby in alarm. Politoed narrowed its eyes at Pele as it landed on a diffrent perch and sent a Water Gun towards her, the Politoed and everyone else were surprised to find Pele's image disperse into thin-air. Allen shouted out, "What?!"

"Don't you know that Double Team can be used for a single clone?" Vali asked in a semi-innocent tone and sweet smile.

Allen gave her a look of disbelief, "Why would you make just one clone and when?"

"Why wouldn't you?" Vali tossed back with an amused grin as Politoed's Rain Dance began to fade and inwardly cheered, "Pele, let's heat things up a bit now that the rain's gone away,"

Vali watched as cracks formed and steam begun to bellow forth from various portions of the field earning confused looks. Confusion turned to shock and awed shouts as lava overflowed certain portions of the field, Pele's Lava Plume turning the field into a deadly play-ground for their comfort. Pele climbed out of the hole she'd burrowed into shaking off the magma she'd been using to clear away some of the water. Allen and Politoed stared at the battlefield in shock with the other trainer's jaw actually dropping. She spoke in a light tone, "Mister Warner, I would advise picking up your jaw. While it is quite wonderful to see that our handwork is actually 'jaw-dropping', we do have a battle to get to."

Allen closed his mouth and stared at her for a moment before looking at his Politoed then at the battlefield. He was completely silent before pulling out his pokeball and stating in a clear voice, "I forfeit. My pokemon's health is worth more than a pokemon battle on a field like this."

Vali, while slightly disappointed, was thankful her opponent cared more about his pokemon than winning a battle and smiled at Allen, "I am glad to hear it, Mister Warner. You were and your team were a pleasure to fight. I hope one day we may battle on an even playing field and perhaps see who is the better trainer."

"I'd like that, Miss Potter-Black," Allen answered after a moment of surprise and returned his Politoed.

* * *

Vali took a seat in the Pokemon Center waiting room after handing Nurse Joy Empress and Pele's pokeball's. While she'd have liked to got see Lance or Steven's battles, they had started a bit before hers and ended not long once it began. Already rumors of the two sweeping the competition were spreading just from that first battle, they hadn't lost a single pokemon. She would just have to catch their next one if it was possible. Taking out her pokenav, she called Delia and smiled when the woman answered immediately, "Vali! How did it go?"

"We won," Vali answered earning a loud squeal, "Empress evolved as well,"

"Oh, how wonderful!" Delia squealed again, "Is she alright?"

"Nurse Joy is looking her over, but she should be fine. She didn't fight at all after evolving and didn't have too many serious injuries before evolving," Vali reported as she leaned back into the soft backrest of the chair, "So long as everything is alright, she'll be released to me in a couple hours,"

"That's wonderful, we should be at the Indigo Plateau in a day and Sirius called me an hour ago to say he's been given Moltres watching duty, so he'll be there as well," Delia let out a soft laugh.

"I can't wait to see him," Vali couldn't wait to see Sirius and introduce Regulus to her Houndour, "It'll be wonderful to see him. I've missed him a lot,"

"He's missed you quite a bit as well. He's been worried especially with the Lavender Town incident," Delia told her in a soft tone.

Vali winced a bit since Sirius would probably have been told the full story or near enough to have guessed it. The old dog would definitely be worrying quite a bit. She rubbed at the back of her neck, "I'll talk to him. I promise, Delia."

"Good," Delia sounded so relieved that it made Vali's heart ache.

Vali resolved to not worry Delia so much or at least make sure the woman didn't know enough about her life to worry. It wasn't a sure thing and she'd probably fail, but it would save Delia some pain in the end. She spoke with Delia a bit more before ending the call and putting away her pokenav with a soft sigh. She spotted Steven heading her way and waved, "Steven."

"Vali," Steven jogged up with a curious look on his face, "What were you doing?"

"Talking to Delia while I wait for Nurse Joy to tell me how Empress and Pele are doing," Vali answered as he took a seat next to her, "You?"

"Just picking up Aggron," Steven said as he held up the pokeball, "How is Delia?"

"She's doing well. She'll be here with Ash, Gary and probably Professor Oak in a day," Vali answered as Aragorn let himself out of his pokeball to greet Steven earning a light smile from the steel-type master-in-training, "Sirius should be here around then too since he's been given Moltres watching duty as well,"

Steven snorted softly, "Moltres watching duty?"

"It's a thing apparently," Vali shook her head, "How's Aggron?"

"He'll be just fine. He didn't take much damage during the battle. I'm only being overly careful," Steven replied as he petted Aragorn, "I apologize for missing out on your battle, but between the press and the my father, I didn't realize how much time had passed,"

"It's fine," Vali waved it off, "You'll just have to catch the next one. Just like I'm planning to catch yours,"

"Sounds like an idea," Steven grinned at her, "Though I do have to ask if the rumors I've been hearing are true, did Pele really turn the entire field into a pit of lava?"

Vali flushed a bit, "Not the entire fiel-"

"Vali!" Zaria shouted from across the pokemon center, "Did you really make them-

"Excuse me!" One of the Nurse Joy gave Zaria a glare causing the dark-type master-in-training to shrink back, "This is a place of healing not shout, please go outside if you're going to do so,"

"Sorry, ma'am," Zaria apologized earning a huff, "I won't do it again,"

"See that you don't," Nurse Joy told her.

Zaria hurried over to where Steven and Vali were sitting, "Vali, is it true?"

"Is what true?" Vali asked with a small frown.

"That one of your pokemon turned the rock field into a volcano," Zaria said with an excited look on her face.

"No," Vali shook her head, "Pele might've gone a bit over-board with here Lave Plume, but she didn't turn it into a volcano,"

"I beg to differ," Zaria grinned as she pointed to a nearby TV, "Check that out,"

Vali stood up and headed over to the TV alongside a curious Steven. When she reached it, the fire-type master-in-training realized why everyone kept saying Pele had turned rock-field into a lava-pit since it really did look like it from above. She heard someone whistle from nearby as the reporter on screen spoke, "-field will be out of commission for three hours while clean up teams work to clear away the damage. Thankfully a backup field for such a time has been prepared. To think a rookie's first evolution pokemon managed to cause this, I for one am going to keep an eye on this Valkyrie Potter-Black of Pallet Town."

"Well, that's one way to get your name out there, Vali," Zaria slung an arm around Vali's shoulder.

"Yeah," Vali stared at the field feeling somewhat shocked since it looked a lot worse now, "It didn't look so bad before,"

"Probably before the Lava Plume had time to eat through the stone and dirt," Steven told her as they moved away from the TV.

"I'm really looking forward to battling you now," Zaria said as she hugged Vali, "Not Pele for obvious reasons since that shit is kinda scary, but I really want to battle you if that's something you're capable of,"

"It'll be interesting to see how we'd fare in a battle against one another, " Steven mused with a light smile as he looked at her.

"I'd love to battle both of you," Vali shook away her surprise.

* * *

Vali was sprawled across the couch with Aragorn's head in her lap and Houndour under her feet. She was watching the news from today while Steven was making something in the kitchen. A knock sounded on the cottage door and Lance called out from somewhere in the hall, "I'll get it!" which was quickly followed by, "Hey, Vali?"

"Yeah?" Vali really needed to find a water-type pokemon at some point since some of them were right up her alley from what she was seeing based on their battle styles, "What's up?"

"Do you know anyone by the name of Sirius Black?" Lance asked causing her to sit up and Aragorn to rise up at the familiar name.

"Sirius?" Aragorn was already rushing toward the door to investigate, "He's here?"

"So you know him?" Lance asked as Vali headed towards the door to see if Sirius was really there.

Vali heard her godfather's familiar bark of laughter as he bent down to pick up Aragorn, "Hello there, Vulpix."

"Aragorn, Actually," Vali corrected with a slight grin, "You've been in the wilds and out of contact for a bit too long, Siri," She looked at Lance, "This is my Godfather, Sirius Black. He's a Pokemon Ranger with the Kanto Branch. My Houndour is his partner Regulus' pup,"

"Aragorn?" Sirius looked at the Vulpix in his arms curiously before nodding, "A good name," Sirius looked up at Lance, "And you are?"

"Lance Blackthorn of the Blackthorn clan in Blackthorn city," Lance answered as he looked at Sirius in surprise, "So you're Miss Delia's fiance?"

"That I am," Sirius looked past them as he put down Aragorn, "Steven,"

"Sirius, it's good to see you again," Steven greeted Sirius with a light smile and extended his hand.

Sirius took it and grasped Steven's forearm tightly for a moment, "You as well. I hope you guys don't mind me taking my goddaughter for a bit. They're only giving me a bit of time away before I've got to get back."

"It's fine. You two haven't seen each other for a long time after all," Steven shook his head lightly as they pulled back, "Have some fun,"

Vali pulled on her shoes quickly as she called Houndour away from investigating Sirius. They left the cottage with her asking, "Where's Regulus?"

"Nurse Joy's looking him over. He took some damage while we were taking care of some poachers," Sirius sounded exasperated as they walked towards one of the nearby parks, "He'll be just fine. So you won your first match?"

"With Empress and Pele. Empress even evolved, she's a Shelgon now though we're going to be doing some heavy training once Nurse Joy clears her to figure out a new battling a style just like with Smaug though it'll be more difficult," Vali sighed softly reaching up to run a hand through her hair, "Shelgon have such heavy bodies like Numel only without the benefit of having a ton of attacks being offered to them, I'm going to have my work cut out for me getting Empress up to snuff, but it'll be worth it in the end just like any other pokemon in the end,"

"Definitely," Sirius grinned brightly, "Damn good job raising her up to that level, she's definitely changed from the Bagon she was back during Christmas," He nudged her lightly, "I saw the video and news report. Destroying the battlefield, huh?"

Vali flushed lightly, "Higher level battles do that kind of thing."

Sirius let out a bark of laughter, "True, but damn did you destroy that field."

"I'm just glad that I don't have to pay for it," Vali muttered with a shake of her head as they passed through an wrought iron gate, "That be expensive as hell,"

"Yeah," Sirius frowned softly, "So, Pup, Lavender Town?"

Hands shoved into her pockets, Vali watched Aragorn and Houndour walk ahead of them while releasing Elrond to keep the two from wandering too far. Elrond floated beside her shoulder while keeping an eye on the two and greeted Sirius earning a light grin from the man. She sighed lightly, "Delia explain the basics?"

"They pulled you from Pallet pretty late. You ended up in the hospital for awhile and were drained for weeks. You're still drained even now," Sirius told her earning a small nod, "You didn't tell them everything, did you?"

"I told Agatha," Vali would have been crazy not to, "Other than that, no," She closed her eyes for a moment, "Sirius, Lavender Town wasn't bad. It was without a doubt dangerous, but not as bad as it could have been. Had it not been for the whole last bit and the general mood, Lavender Town wouldn't have been bad," She opened her eyes to look at Sirius, "Siri, I'm okay. I promise,"

Houndour raced up with a stick and Elrond psychically took it from her to toss it earning a cheerful bark as the hell-hound raced after it. Sirius released a soft breath, "I just worry, Pup. Some of the situations you've been getting into on your journey are really dangerous and the League got you into that when you're only a first year, it bothers me quite a bit."

"I came out fine and got a lot of valuable experience against ghost-types out of it," Vali's pokemon could deal with ghost-type pokemon better than a lot of other first-year pokemon trainers and even most second years, "I got a new partner out of it," She pulled a hand from her pocket to touch Litwick's pokeball and felt the candle-like pokemon's chilly warmth against her fingers, "I also got some important information. About our arrival though nothing fully concrete,"

Sirius' eyes widened, "Really?"

"Legendaries were involved, My inner flames were likely the reason," Vali replied as she ran Xen's words from that day through her mind once more, "I'm a Bearer. A Bearer of Fire and there are others like me out there though I don't know who. Two legendaries have claims on me, the Lord of Flames and one other though I have no idea who," She swallowed heavily, "Siri, things are going to be getting a lot worse. It isn't going to be all at once, but it's going to start once this person that someone named Xen told me is called the Chosen One starts their journey. Shit is going to hit the fan and a war is going to start,"

"Damn," Sirius grimaced at her words, "No wonder things seem to be getting worse lately and you're going to be right in the thick of it. Aren't you?"

"Chosen one's guide after all," Vali replied with wry grin, "Didn't really get to make that choice, but it got us both to this place, right?"

"Right," Sirius smiled likely thinking of all the good things that had happened since they'd landed here in this world that snowy day, "Have you told Steven?"

Vali felt a flash of guilt run through her, "No, I haven't. I will, but with the fact we've only just been reunited..."

"You've been reluctant," Sirius gave her an understanding look, "I get it," He ran a hand through his shaggy hair, "It sounds like a ton of chaos is heading our way and we've got no actual time frame on when just a that there's some years away,"

"At least two," Vali reminded him, "Moltres is also here looking for something,"

Sirius gave her a curious look, "How do you know that?"

"I made a guess and had a little visitor the first night of the tournament," Vali told him, "Someone's here that this Moltres wants to meet. Don't ask me who, I wasn't told by my visitor,"

"Visitor?" Sirius frowned softly, "What do you mean?"

"His name is Xen," Vali wasn't sure how much to tell Sirius, "He's a Spirit Caller. He's pretty nice and the one that's been able to tell me about all this,"

Sirius' frown grew, "Vali just because he's nice doesn't mean he isn-"

"He's dangerous without a doubt," The almost careless way he'd spoken of killing the people who'd summoned him and the feeling of his aura ensured alongside her journey so far, "I'm not so naive to believe otherwise, Siri. Do not believe me to be so foolish,"

Sirius winced, "Pup, I didn't mean it like that."

"I know," Vali shook her head lightly and decided to move the conversation onto a lighter subject since so much heavy news had been shared, "So have you and Delia begun planing your wedding?"

Sirius caught onto her idea and went with it rather happily, "Not just yet, we actually wanted you kids involved in the planning. For all that it will be Delia and I's day, you kids are a big part of our lives."

Surprised and touched by Sirius' words, Vali could only murmur his name and hug her godfather tightly earning a gigantic grin from the man as he returned the embrace just as tightly.

* * *

Steven looked up as Vali walked into the living room of the cottage with a light smile on her face carrying Houndour in her arms with Vulpix on her heels. Elrond floated beside her with a content look on his face revealing that her conversation with Sirius had likely ended on a high note which was good. Smiling at that knowledge, he asked, "A good talk with Sirius?"

"Very good, Sirius would've come in to talk for a bit, but he was called back on our walk back," Vali walked over to the couch and set Houndour down before plopping down on the comfortable cushion beside the hell-hound, "We talked about Lavender Town which reminds me that I have some stuff that I've got to tell you," She looked around, "Where's Lance?"

"Out," Steven frowned slightly wondering what she hadn't told him, "Some late night training with some pokemon he's planing to use later on in the tournament. Why?"

Vali looked both relieved and sad, "Because I was kind of hoping to avoid having to talk about this just a bit longer. I don't like making you worry, but keeping this kind of thing from you would make me a bad friend."

Worry? Steven's heart sank a bit, "Did you get hurt in Lavender Town?"

Vali looked at him in surprise before shaking her head, "No. I didn't get hurt, but I got drained of my magic and inner flames pretty badly," She held up a hand as Steven opened his mouth though he wasn't quite sure what exactly was going to come out of it, "Look the League put a limit on what I'm allowed to tell anyone especially when they're from outside the region, okay? But I can tell you some stuff that I couldn't share before thanks to something that happened recently just let me explain without interrupting because this is absolutely crazy."

The knowledge that Vali wasn't the only one out there with powers like this both made him happy and frightened him a little. Just what kind of roles did these other Bearers have if Vali's was to be a Guide? He looked into Vali's eyes and saw the fear within them though what exactly was she scared of? He wanted to hit himself since she had quite a bit to be scared of since there was a lot that could go wrong, but right now, he needed to ease one of those fears. He reached out and took one of her hands in his, "Well at the very least you won't have to work through any of this alone, right? I'll help where I can. I'm sure the others will if they knew."

Relief filled Vali's eyes, she beamed at him and nodded, "Yeah. It's going to be crazy in a couple of years and we'll have our work cut out for us."

"For now though, we need to get through this tournament," Steven told her with a slight grin, "Have any idea who your opponent will be just yet?"

Vali shook her head, "No. They still haven't sent any message to me. Did they send you one?"

"No," Steven shook his head, "I suppose we'll have to check out the Pokemon Center in the morning,"

"Guess so," Vali leaned back into the couch and Steven got up to sit next to her, "Looks like they're showing more battles from today, do you want to watch?"

"Sure," Steven supposed it would be a good use of time especially if his next opponent was among those shown.

* * *

Vali ended up on the water field next which was somewhat annoying, but she decided not let it bother her. She somewhat wished she'd gotten a water-type pokemon, but even if she had gotten on, it probably wouldn't have been tournament ready. Exiting into the sunlight, she looked across the water towards her opponent to find a slim teenager with pale aqua colored hair held up in a high pony tail and light sea green eyes. She wore a light aquamarine top and a sand colored long skirt. She wore a sea shell necklace. The announcer spoke up, "And now the fourth battle today of the water field! On the green side, we have Valkyrie Potter-Black from Pallet Town. On the red side, we have Xion Alius of Summerland in the Fiore Region."

"Not many trainers come from Fiore," Vali commented as Xion released a Seadra which immediately caused her to change plans and switch the pokemon she was going to use.

While the Seadra in the pool did look somewhat newly evolved, water-types weren't quite something Vali was familiar with and this was the Indigo League and she couldn't risk losing so soon on a bet. Picking Elrond's pokeball from her belt, she listened as Xion murmured, "Most don't," Seadra sank into the pool to explore its surroundings rather excitedly, "I however enjoy being a trainer,"

Vali nodded lightly, "Understandable," She reared back a bit, "Come out and battle with me, my friend," Elrond appeared radiating confusion through their bond though appearing unfazed on the outside, " _Seadra. Somewhat newly evolved from what I can tell, but not chancing Pippin during the League."_

 _"Understood,"_ Elrond replied as he set up Electric Terrain and used Calm Mind, " _Get it out of the water in a hurry?"_

 _"Quickly, I'd prefer to keep the water safe for other pokemon for the moment,"_ Vali replied as Elrond silently dodged Seadra's Hydro Pump, "Your Seadra is quite agile in the water,"

"He's always been a quick guy," Xion replied wish a shrug though her lips tilted downward, "How did you get an Alolan Raichu? They're not native to Kanto,"

"Elrond evolved into one. Simple as that," Vali watched as Elrond managed to catch the Seadra and levitated it out of the water before beginning to shock it as he released it.

Before the Seadra could hit the water, Elrond grabbed it again and lifted it up into the air to begin the process once more until the Seadra fainted. Xion returned her fainted pokemon as the referee shouted, "Victory for green!"

"Who will Xion send out next against Valkyrie's Alolan Raichu?" The Announcer shouted earning cheers.

Xion pulled out a pokeball as she eyed Elrond carefully, "I had wanted to avoid using him until later on in the tournament, but it appears that I need his assistance now."

A Marshtomp appeared making Vali inwardly curse alongside Elrond as the psychic/electric-type muttered, " _Well this won't be easy and switching isn't allowed, is it?"_

 _"No, it is not,"_ Vali replied earning a mental sigh, " _Do what you can, Elrond. We need to figure out a way to beat this one,"_

 _"We will. We always do,"_ Elrond sent her a smile, " _We worked too hard to fall short at this point,"_

Vali nodded with a slight grin, " _Right."_

Elrond dodged the Mud-Slap Marshtomp sent towards him and darted forward catching the Mud Fish pokemon in a psychic grip to use Iron Tail. Marshtomp struggled against the psychic hold as Elrond hit it with Iron Tail and Slam. Marshtomp managed to slip out of Elrond's psychic hold and used Mud Bomb hitting Elrond due to how close to the Mud Fish pokemon he was. Marshtomp dove into the water earning a soft groan from Elrond. Vali's eyes narrowed slightly before she suggested, " _Try shocking the water. Even if Marshtomp is immune, it'll still be uncomfortable."_

Elrond nodded slowly, " _If it'll do something against it, we might be able to be this one."_

Determination flared across the bond as Elrond reapplied Electric Terrain before using Thunder on the pool of water, Marshtomp actually lept out of the water with an irritated look on its face and shot a wave of Scald towards Elrond who quickly covered himself with Protect. Elrond locked Marshtomp in a psychic grip and began battering it with Iron Tail once more until it managed to break free. Marshtomp broke free of of Elrond's psychic hold quicker this time and used Sludge Wave. Vali inwardly cursed alongside Elrond as they both muttered, " _Time limit."_

 _"We'll need to work quick,"_ Vali said earning a nod before Elrond and their connection both shivered.

Vali inwardly winced at the slight pain that flashed through her mind. Elrond spoke softly, " _For your protection, it might be best to cut our connection."_

 _"Not yet,"_ Vali denied immediately as Elrond grabbed Marshtomp again and resumed his attacks which were finally beginning to show some effect though not enough for her to feel confident in winning, " _I can deal with the pain for now, Elrond,"_

Vali was reluctant to cut their close connection until the last possible moment. With how close they'd become since she'd first caught him back during the first days of her journey when he'd just agreed to become a member of her family, she had quickly become reluctant to lose that connection for even a single moment before she had to. It was the unique connection she shared with Elrond that couldn't be copied with any of her other pokemon after all. Understanding flowed through their connection, Elrond spoke, " _Alright, but conversation must be limited. I can't focus on it very well. Holding this one is becoming increasingly difficult, It will take everything I have just to beat this one or rend it close enough for our next pack member to beat it."_

 _"Understood. Do your best, Elrond,"_ Vali sent as much strength as she possibly could through their connection and vowed to see experiment with seeing if her magic would help after the tournament.

Elrond chanced a small smile in her direction before focusing fully on the battle ahead. Elrond kept up the assault with Iron Tail, Slam, and Quick Attack occasionally adding in an electric-type attack. Marshtomp attacked back as it managed to slip out of Elrond's psychic hold with increasing frequency attacking with Mud Bomb, Mud shot, and Mud-Slap. Both pokemon were becoming exhausted though, Elrond was beginning to feel the effects of the poison rather keenly and Marshtomp the strain of having to break free of Elrond's psychic abilities. Vali felt the edges of the connection begin to fray as Elrond began his final attack on Marshtomp and got his pokeball ready to return him seeing as it wouldn't be too long before it would be time for him to rest.

Elrond trapped Marshtomp in a psychic hold once more only this one was much stronger than it had been previously. Elrond coated his tail like usual for Iron Tail only he didn't strike Marshtomp. Instead, he touched the mud-fish pokemon rather firmly and used Thunder. Even with Marshtomp's ground-typing, the move boosted both by Electric Terrain, the fact Marshtomp had recently gone into the water, Marshtomp's own water-type side meant squat against a full-powered Thunder once it was able to get past the ground-type side of things. Marshtomp screamed from the electricity ripping through its body likely one of the first time the pokemon had ever felt the full force of an electric-type attack. Xion's eyes went wide and the other trainer shouted, "What the hell?! How can your Raichu actually shock my Marshtomp?"

"Believing that your pokemon is invincible on typing alone is foolish, a battle is not won on type advantage alone after all," Vali didn't plan on explaining it especially in front of such a large audience.

Elrond ended the attack and barely managed to float back over to platform in front of her before collapsing. He panted heavily shivering and sweating unable to muster the strength to float. He looked at her with a pride filled look, " _I've done what I can, but I think our pack can take care of the rest."_

 _"They can. Thank you, my friend. For everything you've done today, you deserve your rest,"_ Vali told him as she returned Elrond earn a roar from the crowd as the Referee made the call and Xion frowned at her, "I'm not going to endanger my pokemon anymore than he has to be when he's poisoned," She took out her next pokeball after setting Elrond's pokeball in it's place on her side, "Come out and battle with me, my friend," No pokemon she had carried the great-type advantage that Elrond had and Vali wasn't really willing to see if Xion had any other surprises up her sleeve in the form of water/ground-types, "Celina," The Pidgeot cried out as she appeared, "Elrond was taken though he took out one of her pokemon and almost managed this other one, so we just need another one. I need you to get this one out of the way. For Elrond, I've decided to not take any chances and rely on luck for this," Celina let out a coo of understanding and determination, "Fast flying, Girl. Take this sucker out,"

Celina nodded and quickly took off into the air. She immediately started off the battle with an Aerial Ace boosted Steel Wing followed by Swift. She didn't really give Marshtomp much time to attack making sure it knew that taking out a member of her odd flock was not appreciated battle or not. Marshtomp managed to get into the water for some breathing room on Xion's orders. Trainer and pokemon both realized that was a mistake when Celina unleash a her Twister infused Hurricane. Granted the attack wasn't quite finished and easily destabilized, it was more than enough to knock the mud fish pokemon out allowing the battle to end. Xion recalled her pokemon as Celina landed in front of Vali looking pleased with herself. Xion frowned softly as she pulled out another pokeball, "It seems that I'll have to call upon another pokemon I didn't think I'd have to use so soon, but it would seem time's have changed."

The pokemon Xion released was one Vali was only somewhat familiar with due to some scattered research into dual typing. Swanna were beautiful pokemon covered mostly in pristine white feathers. The feathers on their breasts were a light sky blue at the tip and darkened slowly until they reached the base. The somewhat powerful legs were a dark purplish black and their webbed feet were actually adorned with a set of sharp claws. Based on the size of this one, it had probably evolved awhile back meaning Xion had probably had it for awhile and this fight would not be an easy one at all. Looking at Celina, she caught the Pidgeot's eyes and they nodded to one another before the pokemon took off into the air without a word from their trainers.

But a glance towards Xion showed that the other trainer hadn't planned on that, Vali's eyebrow rose a bit. Did that mean the Swanna was a recent addition to Xion's team? If so why use it during an important tournament? She shook her head at the idiotic move and wondered why Xion would do something like that when the other trainer had seemed smarter than that. It would be yet another question that would likely go unanswered. As she pondered all this, the battle ranged over head with Celina dodging the elder pokemon's attacks and actually managing to make some impressive strikes.

Aerial battles could be some of the most complicated battles in existence especially when one had to consider the weather and if there were more than two participants. Even if the weather was decent and only two pokemon were participating like today, the sheer speed both pokemon were going at made things a bit difficult to follow for the humans. Vali analyzed what she could and quickly came to a few realizations. Swanna was fast and powerful with a wider move-pool than what Celina was capable of doing at the current moment. It had managed to score more than a few hits during the time that she'd been thinking slowing her pokemon down. Celina was still going strong though and had scored her fair share of hits. Unlike Swanna who didn't seem to have completely mastered it's entire move-pool to the point it could use each move as easily as breathing, Celina had and was using every piece of knowledge possible to beat this opponent.

Xion shouted up at Swanna attempting to get it to listen to her, but the pokemon didn't seem to be listening at all much to the other trainers slowly growing annoyance. Vali spoke as the battle above continued, "Why bring out a pokemon that clearly doesn't listen to you? Why not use a pokemon that actually will?"

"Because I don't have one that can take on an aerial battler like your Pidgeot," Xion snapped at Vali, "You took out both my aerial defenses leaving me with no choice, but to use the Swanna I was traded by my cousin. I had been hoping to have more time to gain her respect, but then you ended up pulling out an Alolan Raichu out of no where,"

Vali felt a bit of disgust at the fact the other trainer was blaming her for failing to think ahead, "One would hope you would think ahead. Even if I hadn't of had an Alolan Raichu, I might've had some other electric-type waiting in the wings ready to fry your pokemon. Do not blame me for your lack of forethought."

Xion's cheeks turned pink and she opened her mouth to say something when Celina dove downward with Swanna on her tail. The two flying-type looked worse for wear though both were able to continue battling without much trouble. Celina pulled up sharply rightly before the water with Swanna doing the same just barely managing to avoid clipping one of the floating platforms. Celina used Air Slash and one of the blades managed to slice open a rather thickly bleeding scratch on Swanna's side earning a sharp cry of pain from the beautiful bird. Both bird returned to above the battle field, Swanna's feather's slowly turning a light pink or red depending on where it was cut.

Celina shrieked as Swanna's Bubble Beam managed to hit her during another bout of aerial dancing sending a shower of feathers down into the water. Celina conjured up a Hurricane that Swanna apparently decided to cancel out with one of its own only for her to use Twister instead. Swanna slammed into the psychic barrier beside Xion and barely managed to get up before blades of Air Slash began exiting the Twister towards it. Vali smiled lightly despite feeling a bit uncomfortable at seeing a pokemon in pain. Celina had master Twister to a degree that she could use other attacks while maintaining it which was amazing and meant they could better utilize that small move-pool of her Pidgeot. So while they would slowly add in new moves, they would also ensure they Celina would be able to use them while using Twister. Of course this would be while in an area that could take any damage they caused, they had to be very careful when doing this at the lab and only under the supervision of Alakazam.

A loud crack echoed through the air as Swanna's right wing bent in an unnatural angle which was quickly followed by the large bird crying out in pain. The scream echoed through the air as Celina stopped attacking immediately. Xion didn't hesitated to return her pokemon with regret filling her face. The referee called out Vali's win as she returned her own pokemon.

* * *

"Leaves a bad taste in your mouth, huh?" Lance asked rather suddenly.

Vali jerked a bit and found Lance sliding into the seat next to her, "W-what?! Lance?"

"I saw your battle," Lance explained holding out lemonade and she took it slowly, "While mine was before yours, it was on the field right next to yours, so I was able to make it in time unlike Steven. The battle was pretty awesome up until that last one, huh? It left a bad taste in your mouth,"

Suddenly feeling a lot more interested in her lemonade, Vali uncapped it and took a drink. She stared down at it for a few moment before sighing knowing that Lance would probably push for an answer, "Yeah. I like winning a battle, but not like that. She put a pokemon that doesn't even listen to her on the field and it ended up getting a broken bone because of it. I mean it's wing'll heal just fine, but it'll never fly the same way ever again. What the hell was she thinking?"

"Probably hoping she'd win. I never thought I'd hear you of all people curse," Lance looked at her in surprise, "I didn't think you knew any curse words,"

"You'd be surprised how many I knew then," Vali replied with a shake of her head, "But it looks like I'm moving onto the next round. It's only going to get tougher from here on out, isn't it?"

"Yeah. It's very likely we're going to be facing each other," Lance said with light grin, "I'm actually looking forward to that. I want to face you on that battle field again,"

"I want to face you again too," Vali replied with a matching grin already feeling a bit better, "Only this time, I plan to do a lot better," She thought about Empress and the fact Nurse Joy would be handing her over today, "Lance, I don't plan on using Empress during this tournament again. Would you mind helping me figure out a training plan for her?"

"Sure thing," Lance's grin grew, "I love helping baby dragons get stronger after all,"


	22. Chapter 21

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997: Well here is Chapter 21 and the next chapter of the Indigo Conference and the last chapter of the Prelims. Oh things are getting fired up in here, but what's this? New information and questions to be answered? Oh, Vali what are you going to do?**

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* * *

Chapter 21

* * *

Steven walked into the cottage only to pause at the scent filling the air and smiled warmly when he realized that Vali was cooking. Taking off his shoes, he headed for the kitchen and found Vali adding some sort of spice to one of the many pots on the two stoves that were in the cottage kitchen. She looked up at him and smiled, "How many pokemon did you win by?"

"Two. Blastoise needed a bit of help from Skarmory," Steven answered as he eyed the pots on the stove, "How many people did you decide to feed tonight?"

"Us, Lance, Zaria, our pokemon of course, your father, and Siri," Vali with a pleased look on her face earning a light chuckle, "Would you mind giving me a hand? I could use an extra one,"

"Sure," Steven washed his hands after releasing his pokemon into the yard, "Where is Lance?"

"Getting some extra stuff with Zaria and Sirius," Vali answered with an amused look on her face, "Lance was helping me cook until Zaria came over and nearly ended up burning everything. He offered to distract her. Sirius can barely manage to avoid burning water, so its best to just have him out of the way unless its to toss salad as you already know,"

Remembering some rather amusing moments from Christmas, Steven asked, "And my father is coming for dinner because?"

"He wants to spend more time with you and get to know us all a bit more," Vali shrugged a bit, "I also like feeding people when I have a chance, so why not,"

Steven smiled lightly, "It'll be a bit diffrent. My father's not used to having things not cooked by trained professionals."

"Well guess he'll have to deal with it for tonight," Vali nudged him a bit, "After all, I'm taking the time to actually cook for everyone,"

"He'll probably enjoy it," Steven paused a bit in stirring some noodles as he remembered something, "By the way, Father wanted me to tell you thank you for the photo-album. It was a really nice gift and really brought the story I was telling to life,"

"I'm glad," Vali smiled lightly as she moved to the oven and pulled out some garlic knots, "I was a bit hesitant, but I'm glad that I pushed through it all to give that to you. I'm creating another one just from everything going on here at the Conference. I think I'll come next year even if I'm not participating just to take pictures since I've got a feeling there's going to be good money to be made on it. Even if there isn't, the amazing pictures I could take here of both the pokemon and the moments created in real time,"

The almost mesmerized look on her face was actually kind of adorable. She shook her head as a timer rung and moved to pull out some poffins. He looked at the treats in some surprise, "You made poffins?"

"And pokepuffs," Vali walked over to one of the cabinets that had been empty this morning and showed him a container that hadn't been there before, "These are for your pokemon, Mawile actually. I have some for Metagross too. Just a few since I know they don't eat much, I still figured they deserved a treat since we've made it this far in the tournament,"

"Celebrating this early?" Steven asked with a raised eyebrow?" Steven was a little surprised.

Vali flushed a bit, "I know it might seem a bit stupid, but this is my first tournament. I might not make it through my next battle or might. I want to celebrate the fact that I've made it into the top Top 64 on my first shot. I only have the Ice and Grass fields to get through true, but there is no telling if my opponents will actually manage to take my pokemon out. I might end up against you or Lance after all which means I'll probably end up losing."

"That's not true," Steven protested earning a shake of the head and a small laugh.

Vali returned to the stove, "We both know that's a lie, Steven. You both have more experience then my team and I. You're on another level entirely and we're not ready to face you on an even playing field. We'll surely try our hardest," She grinned at him with a fire in her eyes, "Doing our best to drive whoever we're up against to the brink, but in the end, we'll lose whether due to superior strength, strategy, experience, or a combination of it all. We'll take what knowledge we can and put it to use in order to ensure our next battle won't go the same way," She looked at the food in the pot in front of her with determination, "That's how it is after all, we grow with each battle both lost and won never truly giving up even when things get tough, right?"

"Right," Steven looked forward to the battle even if he didn't like how Vali was putting herself down, "But there is a chance you could win,"

"A one in a million chance," Vali admitted in a soft tone, "But Steven, how likely is that even with my luck?"

Steven had to concede, "I suppose we'll have to see what happens when the time comes."

* * *

Vali slipped outside as dinner drew to a close with Lance and Zaria offering to do the dishes. All of the pokemon were settled down rather contentedly outside save for those that could actually fit inside the cottage. They greeted her somewhat lazily from their various positions not wanting to get up as the meal they'd been fed settled. She greeted them in return before settling beside Balto leaning against his side and closing her eyes taking a moment to decompress from the days stress. Smaug's head settled on her shoulder a moment later and she reached up to lay a hand on his nose taking the comfort he was readily offering without a word. There was little doubt in her mind that things were going to be heating up soon enough, the competition was going to get even tougher and there was no telling just what exactly their opponents were going to be pulling out against them.

Smaug let out a soft growl and she opened her eyes to find Joseph Stone standing not far away. He held up a hand, "Easy there, Charizard, I don't intend to cause any harm to your trainer."

"He won't hurt me, Smaug. He's Steven's father. Sire," Vali told him as she moved her hand up to rub soothing circles underneath the base of his right horn earning a low groan from the Charizard, "Joseph, don't feel too bad, he was just giving me a small warning that you were there. I was a bit too deep in my thoughts,"

"Understandable given that the Conference is drawing into it's third day and this is your first one," Joseph looked over Smaug with a light smile, "He's a wonderful specimen for one that's still under a year old. Not a bad growth rate, I do notice a bit of scarring on his left wing,"

"My gym battle at the Cinnabar Gym didn't come without cost," Vali grimaced as she remembered Smaug's rage.

Smaug released a soft growl his wings shifting slightly only to settle as she increased the pressure of her fingers and Balto let out a low rumble. Joseph was quiet and Vali almost forgot about him as she worked in time with Balto to calm Smaug. The Devon Corp president spoke, "I wanted to speak with you alone, Vali," She froze a bit wondering if Joseph was going to try and warn her away, "I'm not going to try and dismiss the friendship that you two have created. A rather pointless endeavor given that you've traveled together for so long and clearly care about one another," Joseph smiled softly, "In fact, I wanted to thank you."

"Thank me?" Vali looked at him in confusion, "Joseph, what do you mean?"

Joseph ran a hand through his hair looking a bit worn, "Steven has no doubt told you that we do not see eye-to-eye on certain matters. But he probably hasn't told you that it goes a bit further than that, a lot further though it mostly extends to his youth," The elder Stone seemed to age and looked somewhat ashamed, "For all that he may look like me, he carries much of his mother and that often made things tense between us. As he got older, it got better between us and we managed to make amends, but it wasn't until his journey that this truly happened."

Vali still didn't understand why he thanked her, "But why thank me?"

"Because Steven's always been more interested in stones and pokemon than humans," Joseph explained in an amused tone, "He could emphasize rather well, but there was always a barrier. With you, the barrier has thinned almost completely to the point its vanished. He's much warmer and interacts with others much better," Joseph smiled lightly at Vali as she flushed, "And we've become closer thanks to you,"

"I didn't really do anything," Vali protested earning a soft laugh.

"You didn't have to," Joseph's smile grew softer and warmer, "I've been watching your interactions with both people and pokemon. It's told me quite a bit about how you've managed to get my son to become more open," He gestured to Smaug and Balto, "You opened your heart to them. Giving everything you possibly could to them leaving nothing, I believe that you've done the same to my son showing him how to become just a bit more open. To those who you care for or that do not show themselves to be bad, you're open allowing them to see a portion of your light. But you're just as capable of burning those that prove to be bad and causing harm, you will only show them the shadows within,"

Vali opened her mouth before closing it as she considered Joseph's words carefully. The man was observant, but to get as far as he did, you had to be. Slowly nodding, she told him, "That sounds about right."

"Don't ever change, Vali, but don't let yours shadows consume that light. It would be a shame if they managed to consume it," Joseph told her.

Vali shook her head lightly, "I don't plan on it. After all, you cannot have shadows without light nor vise versa. I learned that a long time ago," She heard a beep come from her pokenav and check it seeing a message from Delia prompting her to look at Joseph , "Joseph, could I request something of you?"

"You can try, but I'm not sure if it'll be something I can do," Joseph warned her.

* * *

Vali headed out onto Ice field for her third battle of the Conference feeling a sense of nervousness run through her. This would be the first time she'd have no real idea of how to use the battlefield outside of some scarce practice, but that would change once certain pokemon would be unveiled. She looked at the glistening field of ice and felt a bit bad about what she was going to do. Looking towards the other trainers box, she spotted her opponent who had a Helioptile sitting on his shoulder. He grinned brightly as the crowd cheered at him and waved as the Helioptile on his shoulder did the same. He wore a light grey t-shirt with a black Meowth tribal design on the front and a black pair of cargo pants. He wore a pair of red tennis shoes and black lined red finger-less gloves. He had dark brown hair and black eyes. He was lightly tanned and had a scar running underneath his right eye. The announcer shouted, "And now the start of the first battle of the Ice Field! On the green side of the field, we have Arthur Eight of Lumiose City in Kalos. On the red side of the field, we have Valkyrie Potter-Black of Pallet Town!"

"It's a pleasure to finally find myself against you, Miss Valkyrie," Arthur called out across the battlefield with a grin as he pulled a pokeball from his belt, "The rumors I've heard and even the little bits I've managed to see from the your battles have led me to be quite interested in battling you myself,"

"I apologize for being unable to say the same," Vali replied earning a small frown, "But then again, I've had quite a bit on my mind lately and have been unable to focus as much as I'd like. I apologize if you find my lack of knowledge rude,"

"I see," Arthur shook his head, "No matter. My pokemon and I shall ensure that our strength is known by the end of this battle as we move onto the next round," He grinned brightly, "Let's make use of this field my friend, Abomasnow!"

Vali stared at the large ice/grass-type pokemon with some sense of shock. For all that it would be a semi-easier battle on her than what most would probably believe given her past showing for the tournament, the pokemon was definitely not something anyone could underestimate. Snowy white and emerald green fur coated in ice crystals combined with the chilly air that filled the air as soon as the pokemon was released onto the field brought to mind the frost covered forest surrounding Pallet town upon her arrival in this world all those years ago, she truly felt like a child compared to the tall pokemon. The sudden reminder of that day caused her to grip the pokeball in her hand just a bit tighter making the metal bite into the meat of her palm just a bit. Using the slight sting to ground herself and mentally promise to speak with Rodrick since the man was Sirius' therapist, she released Smaug calling out, "Come out and battle with me, my friend!"

"A Charizard," Arthur murmured looking at Smaug with some awe as Smaug took off into the air, "Your starter?"

"That he is, Smaug's the second oldest member of my pokemon family. You'll be meeting the first later on," Vali promised as Smaug started off the battle by diving in low, "Smaug, Burning Cloud!"

Smaug began using Smokescreen much to Arthur's confusion. Arthur quickly shook it off, "No matter your use of such a useless move, Abomasnow, use Razor Leaf! Wide Spread to hit it."

Abomasnow let out a loud roar of agreement and razor sharp leaves began flying out of Smaug's smoke. Smaug activated the second part of their strategy. Burning Cloud came in technically three parts. The Smokescreen was actually coated in just the slightest amount of toxic making it flammable. Smaug spent the first part coating the Smokescreen and the second part spreading it. Smaug was slowly learning to condense the two parts into one, so she tended to consider them one part. Smaug hurried from the smoke with a few small cuts and released a Flamethrower into the cloud of Smokescreen. Arthur didn't realize the danger until too late. When the fire-ball cleared away, Abomasnow was heavily burned though still able to battle while the field where the cloud had been was now mostly water. Smaug let out a loud smug sounding roar earning a small eye-roll from her, "Smaug, now is not the time to sound so smug, we've still got a battle to fight. Arthur's pokemon can still fight and unless he return's him, you're still going to be battling Abomasnow. Besides, it only looks like the top two layers of fur and frost were burned."

"You're definitely one for unique moves," Arthur commented looking torn between annoyed and excited as Smaug geared up for another attack, "But that doesn't mean much, Abomasnow, Blizzard!"

"Sunny Day!" Vali shouted in return and the two attacks cancelled each other out with Smaug sending up another Sunny Day earning a small frown from Arthur, "You assumed just because one of my pokemon didn't know it, my others didn't. It's a bad assumption. I'd suggest not assuming anything when it comes to me, Arthur. Smaug, hit hard and fast. This guy's going to have a tough body with thick fat, a lot of fire-power is needed!"

Smaug roared in acknowledgement and released another more powerful gout of flames that seared through the air towards Abomasnow. The ice/grass-type let out a loud growl and blocked the attack with what could have been either an over powered Powder Snow or Icy Wind. Smaug got in close showing Abomasnow that his attacks weren't limited to just Flamethrower though it was definitely one of the more effective of his fire-type attacks. The modified Flame Burst still wasn't ready for battle and Flare Blitz was so far from battle ready it wasn't even funny. Smaug pulled backwards and retreated into the sky releasing another cloud of Smokescreen after a little while likely causing more than a little confusion. As a rule among those with Charizard, they did not retreat or surrender even when the battle seemed to be all but lost unless the trainer was experienced.

Arthur shouted to his Abomasnow, "Get out of the Smokescreen now, Abomasnow!"

Vali mentally shook her head at the fact he thought Smaug would use the same trick twice in a row. For all the temptation would be there, they would do that in the same battle against the same opponent. Rather than say such a thing, she looked towards Smaug and nodded as he glanced down towards her. He grinned at her and sped towards Abomasnow who was leaving the smoke cloud. With steel coating his wings to protect them, he slammed into Abomasnow with fire coiling from his maw and a loud crash echoed through the air as both went tumbling into the cloud of black smoke earning shouts of shock.

Loud crashes continued to echo through the air, the cloud of smoke was pierced by streams of fire, ice, and grass as the two pokemon within fought. Smaug had become a master within the smoke though whereas Abomasnow was completely blind especially with her Charizard continuously renewing the smoke likely adding Toxic into the mixture. The black smoke began to dissipate as the sounds stopped completely and Abomasnow was revealed to be unconscious. Smaug looked a bit worse for wear with more cuts than he'd had before and some serious looking bruises though nothing outwardly worrying. He seemed rather pleased with himself though. She looked at him with a small frown, "Smaug, are you okay to continue?" Smaug nodded with a snort and spat out an ember of flame towards the ground while giving the Abomasnow a look of acknowledgement, "Was it a good fight?" Smaug nodded again an she smiled, "I'm glad," She looked at the battlefield that looked a bit worse for wear, "You did a lot of damage to the battlefield, Big guy. But that's the price for a good battle."

Smaug snorted again before they both focused on Arthur as he released their next opponent. A Nidoking appeared on the field and Smaug promptly snorted finding this opponent lacking compared to his last one not that she could blame him. Compared to Abomasnow, the Nidoking they were faced with was rather lackluster given its relatively small size telling them both that it had probably only recently evolved likely during the last month before the Conference. While probably powerful due to the hormones rushing through its body and the new power rushing through its body, Nidoking likely didn't have the skill needed to stand up with the opponents it'd be facing, but they'd still need to be carefully. Arthur spoke, "You may have taken down Abomasnow, but Nidoking won't be such an easy opponent to face."

"Smaug, be careful with this one," Vali warned as something about this battle seemed off and she offered Smaug a looked when he turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow, "I'm serious, Smaug. Think about this carefully, we're in the third round of the Prelims. One doesn't get here by being careless and Arthur just sent out what looks like a semi-newly evolved Nidoking. I'm not planning on sending out Idril at all even if I had an awesome plan during the third round of such an important competition unless something was going on," They both looked at the fidgeting Nidoking and Smaug's eyes narrowed, "Keep your distance no matter what, I want you to pound it with every long distance attack possible. Keep an eye out for whatever they're planning, Big Guy. I don't want you to get hurt,"

Smaug nodded and took off into the air as Vali tried to think of what exactly Arthur could be thinking. The battle began with Smaug using Dragon Pulse earning shouts of surprise once more. Nidoking growled and attempted to rush towards Smaug with a crackling fist causing her eyes to widen. Arthur let out a low chuckle as Smaug avoided the clumsy attack with easy and hit Nidoking with Dragon Pulse, "So you've realized what my plan is thanks to Nidoking's impatience, I can't say I'm surprised since he's become such a handful after his evolution. I had hoped he'd keep it a secret for a bit longer since I wished to test you a bit more before revealing my plans."

"It's your own fault for using such a newly evolved pokemon in a battle of this level," Vali replied making Arthur's eyes widen, "It's easy to tell given his size and level of regression. Looking at him just a bit more closely, I'd say you evolved him within the last three weeks, right?"

Arthur nodded with a shake of his head, "He did though that was more due to him finding my moon stone then me giving it to him. I had planned to wait, but he wouldn't wait. Did your Raichu do the same?"

"Not at all, he was actually patient," Vali replied as Nidoking released a Thunderbolt in reply to Smaug's Dragon Rage, "Still a rather bad idea to use him in this competition, he's only got a few more of those in his system if that. The Nido-family don't have the largest electrical storage. It's a lot smaller compared to a member of the Rhy-family who have metal within their skull that can actually keep an electrical charge going and attract ambient electrical energy," Arthur made a face and she flushed a bit, "I live by a pokemon professor and tend to attend his lectures. It's one of the things I enjoy most other then taking photographs, so I tend to know a lot about pokemon. Random facts and stuff like that,"

"Photography?" Arthur asked with a raised eyebrow, "You're a photographer?"

"I do have to make some kind of money on the road other than battles and I enjoy taking pictures," Vali shrugged lightly, "It's a rather fun hobby. If I could, I'd go to various regions just to take picture of various locations, pokemon, and battles. I'm planning on coming to the next one of these things just to take pictures since they're bound to be amazing,"

Smaug ended the battle fairly easily though it took getting in close to knock Nidoking out with an Steel Wing. Smaug managed to avoid getting poisoned thanks to the steel-type energy coating his wing, but it was still closer than she'd like. Arthur returned his pokemon and looked at his pokeballs carefully before choosing his next pokemon. Arthur spoke as he released his next pokemon, "I didn't think that it would come to this, but my friend it would seem it was time. My our bond be strong enough that victory will be assured! Starter versus starter. My shield versus your dragon."

Vali recognized this pokemon to be, Chesnaught, one of the three Kalos starters. Chesnaught is a bipedal, mammalian Pokémon with some plant-like features. On it's belly and fringing its face, Chesnaught has fluffy white fur and the the fringe on its face looks quite a bit like a small beard. It has a small pink nose with a three-pointed patch of brown fur extending up its short snout and four pointed teeth. On top of its head is a plate of beige armor similar to a helmet. It possesses a prominent domed armor-like shell similar to that of a chestnut which is where is likely got the first part of its name. The armor is beige with four large spines jutting out of the back. The armor is trimmed with red and green bands; the green is on the outermost edge. There is an additional spine protruding from the armor over each of Chesnaught's shoulders, which are connected by a green breastplate. Its body is colored similarly to the shell, and its long limbs and tail are banded with plates of armor. The top surfaces of the tail and arms are protected by green armor, and each arm has two small spines. It has three brown, clawed digits on its hands and feet. Its hands can fuse together to create a spike-covered 'shield'.

On many a message board she'd come across during late night research and simple curiosity, Chesnaught had quickly gained the same fame as Camerupt when it came to unwary battlers who were unprepared for it. Unless you had a handy fire-type with a powerful enough fire attack to pierce through it's shield, you were not going to be able to get anywhere with one of those pokemon. It's why Kalos had found it's population of Chespin almost completely decimated much like Kanto's Bulbasaur and Charmander populations. Only in recent years had the population slowly begun to climb and even then it was rare Chespin was allowed to be used as a starter in Kalos, it was a surprise to see Arthur with a Chesnaught which meant he must be one of the lucky few that managed to get one somehow.

Chesnaught flared its arms as it appeared and bellowed before looking around the field. It caught sight of Smaug and got into a battle position. Smaug tail flame flared brightly as he roared and swept through the air to land in front of her. The two pokemon stared at each other for a few moment before launching forward as the announcer shouted, "What on earth was that staring contest about?"

"Your Smaug isn't one to back down against the unknown is he?" Arthur asked with an amused laugh.

Vali shook her head as she shook off her confusion over the small staring contest that had occurred, "No, he isn't. If it was his choice, he'd rush in and burn everything to cinders."

"So you're the reason he isn't doing what other Charizard's do," Arthur mused with a raised eyebrow, "Then again, who else could it be? This battle is definitely defying my expectations about you,"

"A good thing I hope," Vali watched Smaug hit Chesnaught in the face with a Fire Punch earning a small grunt, "Going into a battle with expectations will always lead to disappointment somehow,"

Chesnaught hit Smaug in the chest with Hammer Arm sending Smaug flying back with a loud grunt. Smaug used Dragon Rage and Wing Attack using the time Chesnaught took to weather both attacks to build up the time needed to use Smokescreen and Toxic coating as much of the field as possible before flying above it. He released Flamethrower causing the smoke to explode as Arthur shouted at his pokemon. The smoke that resulted cleared away revealed a burnt Chesnaught who's armored body definitely took a worse hit then Abomasnow had for reasons that she wasn't too sure about though she'd try to figure out at a later point in time. Adding onto the fact that the field was now mostly water due to the intense heat created by the attack, Vali was pretty sure she was probably going to keep the title 'Field destroyer' even if her last battle hadn't ended in the same thing happening.

Chesnaught shook itself with a low grunt before using Vine Whip and grabbing Smaug who burned the vines seeking him earning a loud growl. Chesnaught summoned more vines capturing Smaug and used Sludge Bomb as the Charizard managed to break free once more. Smaug was coated in the poison and quickly burned it away using the skill that he'd begun to learn via their attempts at Flare Blitz. Smaug resumed his attacks, but it became apparent that Chesnaught had managed to poison him as the shuddering purple aura slowly began to form. And with a time-limit in mind, Vali was able to see a side of Smaug that had only just begun to develop and she rarely got to see outside of times like this.

Ever since that gym battle on Cinnabar when Smaug's pain and rage managed to unlock that hidden well of power within him, they'd been working to bring that out of him again. It hadn't worked out too well as Smaug seemed to need a trigger to reach that hidden well of power and they just couldn't seem to find it just yet. It would likely have to wait until her training with the Lord of Flames for that secret to be reveled. But they had managed to find something that benefited them, Smaug managed to focus himself when some kind of limiter was introduce. A goal or a time-limit would let him ignore every distraction and only focus on what was needed. In this case, the distraction of the crowd and competition could be forgotten because he had a battle that needed to be won under a time-limit that had been introduced.

Smaug's attacks became focused and his flames that much hotter actually causing Chesnaught to let out pained grunts as the large pokemon was forced backwards a bit. Arthur spoke up about the change in Smaug, "What's going on?"

"You added a time-limit," Vali told him.

Smaug continued pressing forward on the attack forcing Chesnaught back dodging the attacks that the larger pokemon tried or cutting them off with a Flamethrower before they could fully form. Toxic was released every possible moment putting Chesnaught under a time-limit as well, Arthur let out an unintelligible string of words and took out Chesnaught's pokeball as she did the same with Smaug's even as the battle continued. Both of them watched carefully as the two pokemon continued to battle though she quickly returned Smaug after a few moments with Arthur doing the same. Arthur spoke in a warm tone, "I give up. It's clear that Vali would have won the rest of the battle what with having two fresh pokemon to my poisoned one. I would not put my partner in any further danger. Thank you for the battle, Vali. You and Smaug bother. I hope that we may battle again one day in the future."

"I do as well," Vali replied in a warm tone, "It was amazing to battle you, Arthur,"

* * *

Vali handed over Smaug's pokeball to Nurse Joy and went to take a seat with a low sigh. The battle had been exhilarating and difficult in a way that the others hadn't been. Sure Arthur hadn't pushed her to use more than one pokemon, but he had still been a difficult opponent using pokemon she hadn't battle before save for Nidoking. She grinned brightly at just how quickly her heart had been beating through the entire match. Every single moment even when battling Nidoking had been heart racing while the others hadn't been, she couldn't be calm for even a single moment while Arthur had continually kept her guessing. This was what it meant to be here in the Indigo Conference, the higher you went the more difficult it became and the higher risk everything became.

"Vali," Vali opened her eyes at Delia's familiar voice while wondering when she'd closed them, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Just had a really exciting battle is all and needed to take a moment to calm down is all," Vali noted the lack of Ash, "Ash?"

"Currently heading to watch what's left of Steven's battle alongside Gary with Steven's father seeing as I doubt Nurse Joy would like to hear them shout in here," Delia smiled softly at her, "That was an exciting battle, you didn't lose a single pokemon from what I saw,"

Vali nodded as Delia took a seat, "Yeah, it's the first battle where that happened, but then again I didn't exactly take a chance by sending out one of my newer pokemon," She ran her fingers over the pokeballs on her waist feeling each pokeball warm underneath the pads of her fingers, "I'm trying to figure out who to send out tomorrow. We'll be on Grass Field, but there won't be any information on our opponents unlike if we were in the next round of the tournament."

"You'll figure something out. You always do," Delia told her, "Besides, you've made it this far which is more than most first year trainers get,"

The reminder made Vali grin a bit, "True. Smaug's going to be a smug brat for being able to carry us into the next round alone."

"Just let Professor Oak's Charizard play with him for a bit when you get home," Delia suggest earning a choked laugh.

"Delia!" Vali said sharply with a giggle earning a cheeky grin.

* * *

"It was soooo cool!" Ash shouted as they sat down together in the Oak residence at the Indigo Plateau, "Smaug was like 'you want beat me? Ha! Fat chance!'"

Ash and Gary were explaining the battle to Steven, Zaria, Lance, and Sirius as they had been unable to watch for obvious reasons. Lance snorted into his soda as Ash made a whooshing sound with his mouth, "Seriously? He zipped around the field? Charizard don't do that kind of thing."

Ash's cheeks puff up and he pointed at Vali, "Vali's Smaug does."

"I don't believe it," Lance shook his head and he looked at Vali, "Tell me that the kid's just bluffing,"

Vali shook her head as Steven smiled lightly, "He isn't. You forget what kind of battling style I've got, Lance. Don't get me wrong, Smaug's got all the key flavoring of the classical Charizard battling style, but he also has my favored antics. For all that tanking hits and full assaults work, you've got to dodge and be sneaky as well."

Lance looked at her with wide eyes and opened his mouth before glancing at Ash then Gary before saying, "It doesn't seem like something that would fit a Charizard, Vali."

"It works for me," Vali replied with a shrug, "And won my match which is the important part, Lance,"

Steven spoke up as Lance opened his mouth, "So Delia, where's the professor?"

"Still in Pallet for the moment, They're busy with research," Delia's smile was one filled with fond exasperation, "But he'll be here tomorrow, he wanted to have one more day to work,"

"Must be some project for Professor Oak to not come to the Indigo Conference," Joseph commented with a curious look on his face, "What exactly is he working on or is this project a secret?"

Vali shook her head lightly, "I don't believe we're allowed to say at the current moment, so I'd leave that question for Professor Oak."

"Of course," Joseph inclined his head, "So Vali, Steven mentioned that you were writing a research paper on the evolution of Lileep and Cradily. How has that gone?"

Vali groaned at the reminder of her paper earning a sympathetic look from Lance and Steven as her head hit the table with a thunk. Delia let out a soft giggle as she grumbled unintelligible insults under her breath, "Vali's working very hard on the paper when she can, but Samuel is being very hard on her. So was Houndour after the little one hatched, we tend to avoid mentioning the research paper usually as a result."

"So much red ink," Was the only thing anyone could make out from where Vali's head was pressed into the table.

Steven patted her on the back, "You just have to get through it, Vali. Everyone goes through it at some point."

Vali gave him a small glare when she raised her head earning a light grin in reply. The fire-type master-in-training was very tempted to smack the steel-type master-in-training. Zaria giggled softly, "Steven, I'd back away since Vali looks like she really wants to hit you right now."

"I won't hit him," Vali denied with a shake of her head as she sat up properly and resumed eating, "Today was a difficult day though,"

"Says the one who didn't even lose a single pokemon," Zaria said with a slight frown, "But you're right, it was difficult. I barely managed to scrape by today and with tomorrow being the last round there's no telling if I'll actually managed to pass the prelims,"

Vali remembered that Zaria's Zorua barely managed to kept consciousness long enough to win the battle. She frowned softly not liking how close her friend had come to losing. She gave Zaria an encouraging look, "You'll make it through, Zaria. You've worked so hard for this and for so long, you just have to keep on believing that you'll make it through tomorrow. So long as you believe that you'll win the battle, you'll be able to make it through," She grinned brightly thinking about her bond not only with Elrond but with all of her pokemon, "After all even without a psychic pokemon, you share a bond with every single pokemon you've got and they'll be able to feel whatever you do to some extent. So long as you believe in them and give them strength in spirit, they'll be able to find hidden wells of power within themselves that might just make the difference."

Zaria perked up with a grin, "You're right, Vali."

"Those are some wise words, Vali," Joseph commented with a raised eyebrow as both Ash and Gary gave Vali confused looks, "Just where did they come from?"

"Nowhere exactly," Vali flushed a bit as Elrond floated over from the doors where the pokemon had been eating, "Just something I've found to be true as my journey's progressed, Elrond's evolution and Sabrina's tips not to mention Steven's helped me to realize that further," She looked at Ash and Gary, "Ash, Gary, I'm going to tell you something that you'll need to keep close to your hearts for when you become a trainer," She smiled at them, "No matter how far you go nor what goal you end up choosing to pursue, you must never ever forget about your bonds. You've heard all of us talk about the bonds between pokemon and humans more times then we could count, right?"

"Yeah," Ash nodded with a curious look on his face, "It's important though, right?"

"Right," Vali grinned lightly, "It's why we keep saying it. Pokemon like Eevee can evolve through bonds of friendship as you know, but it goes a lot deeper than that. You've heard me say that Balto and everyone else are like family to me," She reached up to rub Elrond's side as he settled on the table beside her plate, "But it goes a bit deeper than that in some cases, Elrond especially allows me to see just deeply those bonds go thanks to our connection. They're my brothers and sisters just like you. The bonds that we share let us move forward with the confidence needed to face everything that comes our way," She looked at her human brothers, "Pidgey and Bellsprout will be with you every step of your journey just as Balto has been with me, they'll be your partner in ways that your starter cannot be. They'll be the bridge between your pokemon and you. Without a psychic-type pokemon, they'll be the only one that can truly understand you. The bond you share with them is irreplaceable,"

"Vali, how come you haven't battled with Balto yet?" Gary asked with a frown, "He's your brother and partner, right?"

"Because I wanted to give everyone else a chance first and due to the fact that there was a good time to bring him out yet," Vali replied with a soft chuckle, "But soon enough, Balto will be making his debut," She frowned softly, "Though I do have to wonder how tomorrow will go given that we'll be on Grass Field,"

"Balto and Arwen are the only pokemon that haven't battled at all too," Delia commented earning a slightly grim smile.

"Terra hasn't either," Vali reminded her, "But yes, they're the only ones that haven't battles. Tomorrow will definitely be interesting,"

* * *

Vali walked out to Grass Field with Aragorn padding beside her having decided she wanted at least one of her pokemon beside her at this point in the Conference whether she won or lost. Aragorn looked out at the field in both longing and awe. She bent down to run her fingers across his head murmuring softly, "One day, you'll be battling down there, but that day is a bit further in the future. You've got a lot of work to do before then, Aragorn," Aragorn barked softly and wagged his tails, "Remember, you've got to stay beside me on the trainers platform no matter what, okay?" Aragorn nodded and settled down, "Good."

Vali stood up properly and looked across the way towards where her opponent was supposed to be only to find no one there. She frowned softly and looked around as the announcer called out, "Well this is strange, it would seem while Miss Valkyrie Potter-Black of Pallet Town in Kanto has arrived on time, her opponent has not made themselves known. Folks, I ask that you give us a moment while we sort this out, so please be patient."

Aragorn let out a soft bark of confusion and Vali shook her head, "No, this isn't normal at all. I have no idea what's going on, but I'm sure it'll be fixed up soon."

Someone came up to Vali's trainer box in the red corner and they turned out to be the Referee, "Miss Potter-Black, there was a severe glitch in the system that caused it to show you battling both Mister Stone and Mister Blackthorn. Seeing as that isn't possible as both have already battled on Grass field, we have done a redrawing for the days battling. Your opponent is arriving as we speak. Mister Goodshow apologizes for the wait and thanks you for the patience."

Vali nodded slowly jolting at the thought of having to battling either of her friends now and being grateful at being able to battle someone else, "Tell him I said thankful very much for the redrawing as I do not feel very comfortable battling either of them at this stage in the competition though I look forward to the prospect at a later stage. Battling them either of them at some point in this competition is a goal for me, I'd just rather not lose in prelims."

The Referee nodded and left as Vali turned forward once more. She saw her opponent walk up soon enough and was a little caught off guard by the Treecko being cradled in her arms. The girl had bright pink hair braided in a way that it resembled a sakura blossom and light purple eyes with a blue tint to them. She had sun-kissed skin with a greenish red clover on her forehead. She wore a kimono much like Erika only hers was pink with white designs on it likely newly bought for the tournament. The girl smiled warmly and bowed taking great care of the pokemon in her arms, "Please excuse my lateness, I was not informed of my opponent and time change until just a few moments ago. My name is Ellie Graywind of Violet City in Johto."

"Well Folks, it would seem we're ready to battle if our lovely ladies are," The announcer shouted earning cheers.

Vali nodded with a light smile as she primed a pokeball feeling the heat from within already gather against her palm, "A pleasure to meet you, Ellie. I don't mind you being late at all as it isn't really your fault in the end. I'm Valkyrie Potter-Black of Pallet Town in Kanto."

Ellie's smile froze a bit and she paled a bit, "I-i see."

"Something wrong?" Vali asked earning a shake of Ellie's head.

"N-no, it would seem that this battle might just a be a bit more difficult than anticipated seeing as I plan to be a grass-type pokemon mistress," Ellie explained pulling out a pokeball, "I hope to open a new gym in Johto, but to do that will take time as you likely know living so close to Professor Oak,"

Vali inclined her head feeling excited, "I do and this battle makes me excited as it seems to be pitting future elemental mistress against future elemental mistress," She grinned brightly, "Seeing as I plan to become a fire-type master," She released Balto, "Come out and battle with me, my friend!"

"This will be most interesting then," Ellie released a Sunflora which tended to be a rarely used choice among those going into the Conferences though they were definitely versatile when given TMs.

Unless you count needing to battle in darkness which cut down on that versatility almost completely, it was a pain in the ass to get Sunflora trained up to the point they could battle at night and only Erika had any Sunflora on record with the ability to do it. Vali eyed the pokemon carefully knowing that Ellie had to be confident in its abilities to use it at this point. She spoke as Balto tensed his body, "Balto, let's show our fellow elemental trainer the respect she deserves and give the crowd a true showing of our abilities."

Balto let out a howl of agreement and took off in a blur of speed leaving streaks of fiery embers behind. Ellie let out a loud gasp and shouted, "Sunflora, Petal Blizzard!"

Sunflora stirred up a veritable sea of glowing pink petals. Vali's lips pulled into a grin at the sight as she shouted, "Balto, HEAT WAVE! Full blast!"

Almost immediately the Petal Blizzard was vaporized for the sheer heat coming from Balto's Heat Wave mixed with the Sunny Day he'd used while everyone was distracted by Sunflora's attack, Sunflora cried out in pain from the attack which was flowed up by the Flame wheel Balto followed up with. Sunflora managed to attack back with what looked like Absorb which was clever though Balto was quick to use Fire Fang and Toxic for added effect. Sunflora used Pounded and Absorb attempting to get Balto to let go though he just kept up with the pressure only letting go when the Sun Pokemon finally fainted. With a gentleness that seemed to shock Ellie, Balto carefully set Sunflora down and backed away.

Ellie returned her pokemon asking, "What was that?"

"What the battle is done, Balto will always do his best to ensure his opponents do not suffer. It is a trait he has gained from myself," Vali replied with a light shrug, "As the alpha of our family, our pack, he must always set an example especially when it concerns those that have joined us from their very first moments within this world," She smiled down at Balto while bending down to set a hand on Aragorn's head, "Where my starter acts as our enforcer, Balto is the leader and my main partner and brother,"

"So you started with two pokemon then?" Ellie asked as she pulled out a second pokeball, "Charizard for your starter and an Arcanine for your partner. I'd say it's unfair, but I did the same thing. Granted my own starter pokemon weren't anything close to that rare, I wasn't quite so lucky with either, but I love both of them dearly. They're my dearest friends and siblings," Ellie released a Roserade, "Roserade, is one of them. We've got an Arcanine to deal with. Grassy Terrain, Poison Sting, and anything else you can stick this one with, my dear. It's down to you and our other brother against a fire-type mistress-in-training."

Roserade let out a soft squeal and began to glow green in much the same way as Elrond glowed golden when setting up Electric Terrain. Vali didn't need to call out to Balto to avoid anything Roserade sent out as he was already off before Ellie could finish saying Poison. Ellie simply shook her head and they settled down to watch the battle knowing that they'd get in the way at this point. She looked at Ellie after a few moments as Balto released a Flamethrower after slipping out of Extreme Speed before disappearing into the ground with Dig, "Ellie? Did you battle all of the Eight main gyms?"

"Yes, I was curious to see if I could manage it and I did," Ellie smiled lightly, "You're wondering about if I managed to beat Blaine of Cinnabar, correct?"

Balto erupted out of the ground as Vali nodded, "Yes, so if you did manage to beat all eight, how did you manage it then?"

"I have a team set up to deal with fire-types, but didn't think I'd be fighting against you," Ellie smiled weakly.

Vali glanced towards the battlefield where Roserade had destroyed a copy of Balto only to be confronted with another one, "You're the second one that seems to know me. Am I really making a name for myself?"

"You are. Not many destroy a field like you do during their first tournament," Ellie said in a rather dry tone, "Or come up with so many unique combinations, It's unheard of a first year trainer to have such skills. I'd say it's a Pallet Town thing, but the trainers that I found myself facing from Pallet town in your year haven't really inspired that thought,"

"I spent quite a bit of time at the lab when possible and in the Corral simply observing the pokemon," Vali saw Roserade falling into a hole and grinned a bit knowing Balto was going back to the basics, "I've never really spent much time with the other trainers in my year. After all, they always found me to be the weird girl that was never really worth their time and pokemon were always more interesting to me. It was fine since I enjoyed spending time with pokemon and learning more about the world around me in preparation for my coming journey,"

"So it's a Vali thing then," Ellie smiled slowly, "Well shame on them since they ended up missing out on gaining an interesting perspective on battling since you're techniques are definitely something I've never experienced before,"

A stream of fire and smoke exploded from the hole before Roserade came flying out followed by Balto who looked a bit bruised with a few scratches and cuts. He had a long cut going down his right side that didn't seem to be bleeding thankfully. Roserade was heavily burned and knocked unconscious. The poor pokemon would definitely be needing at least a week in Nurse Joy's care if not a bit longer. Ellie sent out her next pokemon which ended up being a Vileplume and the match began without further ado with the pokemon using a mixture of powders. Mentally cursing as the powders filled the air, Vali shouted at Balto, "Burn it all!"

Balto used Heat Wave causing the air to explode which while it cleared away the powder and did damage to Vileplume also did backlash damage to her Arcanine. It also revealed that Roserade had managed to poison Balto at some point during the final class down in the ground though she wasn't sure when. Which meant there was a time-limit once more, she inwardly groaned at that, but had to admit it was good motivation. Balto shook off the effects of the poison and raced forward to hit Vileplume with Flame Wheel and following up with Fire Fang. Flamethrower was used at point blank range earning a loud squeal before Balto was sent flying by the Moon Blast that was Vileplume used. Ellie spoke as Balto wobbled a bit starting to look drained, "It looks like Balto is beginning to feel the effects of Roserade's poison."

"So it would seem," Vali acknowledged knowing that they'd have to end the battle soon and with something that had suitable fire power, "Balto, use Flare Blitz,"

Balto howled in acknowledgement as Ellie's eyes widened and she opened her mouth likely in an attempt to give some kind of counter attack order. Too bad it would never be heard as Balto disappeared in a blur of speed once more, he reappeared shrouded in flames not an inch away from Vileplume and slammed into the flower pokemon like a fiery comet. Burns immediately formed upon contact as flames seared away skin cells, the flower pokemon flew into the psychic barrier due to the force of Balto's charge as he slid to a stop wincing from the recoil. Vileplume sank to the ground against the barrier which flickered and flowed in visible waves struggling against the pokemon laying against it. Vileplume slowly rose up after a few moment with horrible burns coating much of its front and fell back down before slowly starting to rise again clearly fighting against itself to stay up. Ellie took out its pokeball shaking her head, "Vileplume, it-" Vileplume shrieked loudly shaking its petaled head, "Brother, you don't have to do this for me. We've come far enough this time. Next time, we'll do better, but I won't risk your health for pride."

Vileplume looked at Ellie before shaking its head once more and turning back towards Balto as it struggling to standing once again. Balto barked at it letting out a howl making Vileplume freeze and he continued to bark becoming very animated. Vileplume looked up towards Vali with its eyes going towards Aragorn and back to Ellie where the Treecko was staring at it with wide eyes. It looked back at Balto before gaining a definitely guilty look on its face and slumping against the ground as its eyes finally closed. Ellie returned Vileplume giving Balto a grateful look, "Thank you, Balto."

Balto nodded to Ellie and Vali returned him and whispered her congratulations to his pokeball in a gentle tone promising to give him a few treats after Nurse Joy releases him from her care.

* * *

Vali was a little surprised to find Ellie walking up to her after dropping off Balto, but supposed it was a nice change compared to her other opponents thus far in the competition. They headed to one of the small gardens off to the side of the pokemon center. Aragorn began playing with Treecko and Houndour once the three were introduced. She released Elrond and set him to watching the three causing Ellie to jolt a bit in surprise, "He's willing to do that?"

"He is. We're a family. Pack, after all," Vali said as she sat down on one of the provided benches and looked at Ellie as the older girl did the same, "Vileplume, he's the leader, isn't he?"

"He is," Ellie confirmed looking only slightly surprised, "He's been with me since I was around eight years old. For a member of the Oddish-line, he's always been a bit hot-headed which has always left him to be a bit of the odd one out. Being around Treecko's helped, he's still bull headed though,"

"So you wished to speak with me?" Vali asked earning a nod.

Ellie leaned back a bit, "I've always had great difficulty talking sense into Vileplume, but Balto managed it."

"He's always been good at that," Vali reached to her ear where the lingering scar from Balto's reprimands lay, "Talking sense into people is something he's always been good at even if it doesn't actually mean he can talk,"

Ellie let out a soft laugh, "Funny how close we can be to our pokemon rather than humans, huh?" Vali hummed in agreement, "I was hoping that you might be able to help me figure out a way to get Vileplume to listen to me better, but if its all Balto..."

"Just try talking to him is all I can say," Vali told her, "Communication works both ways, a partnership will not work if there is no communication between either side. Try asking a psychic-type to work on deepening your bond, Elrond has helped my pokemon and I do so,"

"Isn't it a bit creepy though?" Ellie asked eyeing Elrond carefully.

Vali shrugged a bit, "It was at first, but you learn to get over it especially when it comes to your pokemon who will see every single part of you and never judge," She smiled as Elrond sent warmth towards her, "But thanks to it, my pack and I've grown even closer since I've been able to understand things on their level in ways that I couldn't before just as they could do the same for me. It's almost scary actually," She looked over ran her fingers over Balto's empty pokeball slot and Smaug's, "At some points, it was almost like we were being blended together as our connection grew."

"W-what?!" Ellie looked at her in alarm as she jerked away from looking at Elrond.

Vali nodded lightly, "Sabrina called it the beginning of a phenomenon called 'Psychological Mergence Connection' which happens when one begins to dive too deeply into the psychic connection between pokemon and human without some kind of barrier," She let out a soft laugh, "Psychic-type pokemon have natural barriers, so it isn't a big problem, but others don't normally have those barriers meaning it is a rather large problems among them if such connections form. It's why telepathic connections between non-psychic-type pokemon and humans are ill-advised unless one is a psychic human," She was going to try and figure out how to mimic such a connection with her magic if possible since there had to be some kind of possibility out there, "But deepening the bond between pokemon and human is possible just so long as one doesn't go too far."

"How far is too far?" Ellie asked with a frown.

"I'm not the best person to answer as there are times when I am not exactly me," Vali warned her with an apologetic smile, "My advice is to speak with Sabrina for advice and to actually have suggest someone to help deepen your bonds. If anyone would know of someone trustworthy enough to do it, she would,"

"I'll keep that in mind," Ellie's frown deepened a bit, "I'm going to speak with her a bit further before I make any decisions about deepening my bonds,"

"A good decision though I hope my words don't scare you off," Vali grimaced a bit, "I dug a bit too deeply on my own without proper supervision is all and paid the price for it. Sabrina is helping me pull myself together and I'm young enough that the damage will repair itself though I'll likely be always carry a bit of a wild edge to myself," She felt a slight brush against the edge of her sense and smiled lightly, "I'll let Sabrina explain it. Hello, Sabrina,"

"Greetings and congratulations on making it past the prelims, Vali," Sabrina greeted as she entered the garden causing Ellie to scramble to her feet while Vali followed at a much slower pace, "Hello again, Ellie, Elrond, Aragorn. It would seem that you already guessed why I've come, Vali, though only a small portion of this visit,"

Vali smiled warmly at Sabrina as Aragorn raced over with Houndour hot on his tails, "I'm also assuming we're going to be working through some more of the damage and seeing to my mental shields as well."

"Correct," Sabrina bent down to greet Aragorn and looked at Houndour with a slightly soft expression, "They should be getting ready to release Smaug soon,"

"I'll be waiting in the pokemon center then," Vali said with a light nod, "Ellie, I do hope that you'll consider deepening your bonds. It's truly a wonderful thing to do,"

* * *

"Vali is one of the oddest trainers you've met, isn't she?" Sabrina commented after Vali had left them with her pokemon in tow though Houndour had been reluctant to leave.

"Very," Ellie shifted a bit uncomfortably not sure how to act around the gym leader.

It had taken Ellie three seperate tries to beat the coldest of the eight Kanto Gym leaders and even then it had only been by the skin of her teeth. Being this close to the most powerful psychic once more was surprising, she had thought it would be years before it would happen again and yet here she stood. Not only that, a first year trainer had spoke to one of the most powerful gym leaders like it was nothing and acted so at ease. Not only that, she acted like it wasn't even the first time it'd been like that or even the eleventh. The girl jolted as Sabrina spoke, "That's because Vali has always acted like that. With all of us gym leaders save for perhaps Giovanni, she's acted as a regular person around us. It's actually refreshing especially for me."

"I-i see," Ellie felt a paw on her leg and looked down to see Treecko, "Hey, Buddy,"

"Vali wanted to deepen her bond with every single one of her pokemon to the same depth as the one she shares with Elrond," Sabrina explained as Ellie bent down to pick up Treecko, "She wanted to hear their voices just as clearly as she heard his and Elrond agreed to help her try. Together they worked on trying not knowing what exactly would happen," A soft sigh left the gym leader and she actually looked sad, "It's very lucky that Delia noticed the changes in Vali when she did and that they started with just a single pokemon rather than every single one of them otherwise I'd be scared to think of what would happen,"

"What do you mean?" Ellie looked at Sabrina with a frown.

"Vali started to deepen her bond mainly with her partner going into the point where they began to experience the Psychological Mergence Connection," Sabrina explained as she levitated one of her pokeballs, "During this time, pokemon and human began to mentally merge. Many things can happen at the end of this process though usually it ends with both parties dying due to pokemon and human minds being completely incompatible. If Vali and Balto were compatible with the merge being able to complete, one of their bodies would have to die as the resulting mind would have to take over one of the bodies and usually the human body would perish as a result as the pokemon body would be preferred due to being stronger,"

"But Vali said she thinks of all her pokemon as partners," Ellie murmured slowly.

"Which is why I'm thankful she didn't try to deepen her bond with all of them to that point," Sabrina shook her head slowly, "If that had happened, she would've made them all brain dead as her mind and theirs would've been torn in multiple directions. If by some chance they somehow managed to make it work, they would've been floating in limbo as the resulting mind would've had far too many bodies and they would've perished,"

Ellie frowned at that, "So why deepen the bonds at all if that's the danger?"

"Because the danger is only if you go too far," Sabrina replied slight smile forming, "Vali pushed too far and thanks to us stopping it, we can reverse the damage to a point. Deepening you bond is amazing and you'll never regret it especially when you realize the benefits offered to you,"

* * *

Vali took Smaug's pokeball from Nurse Joy and cradled it in her hand feeling the familiar warmth sear through her hand causing her eyes to almost close as joy filled her. She moved off to the seating area and sank into one of the offered seats. Elrond sat down on the arm of the seat and closed his eyes as his tail settled a bit on her arm widening their connection and deepening it. She felt a new connection form prompting her eyes to close as everything else slipped away for the moment. Fire that was almost as familiar as her own that carried songs of air and the thrumming roars of dragons, the slightly gravely rumble of Smaug's mental voice was always somewhat startling to hear, " _Elrond, what is the report?"_

 _"Our Alpha has managed to get us into the next round,"_ Elrond answered earning a pleased mental rumble, " _Vali is listening in and wishes for me to inform you that she'll be telling everyone else later. She also wants to tell you that you'll be fine to battle in another day. We'll be resting to recover from the battles and waiting on the results of the prelims to find out who our opponent is,"_

Smaug let out a low rumble of acknowledgement, " _Understood, Vali. Has Empress calmed from evolution?"_

 _"Semi, it depends on the day and if she's been training,"_ Elrond let out a tired sigh, " _Lance has been very helpful in that regard,"_

 _"I'll take over,"_ The possessiveness that leaked into Smaug's tone was somewhat worrying if a bit amusing, " _Has Alpha given any orders before the battle?"_

 _"None other than the usual,"_ Vali smiled at how self-sufficient her pokemon could be as Elrond caught Smaug up on everything that had happened since he'd entered Nurse Joy's care.

* * *

"Prelims are over and we all made it!" Zaria grinned broadly as they sat together in the Oak residence once more, "Now we get a few days off to rest before we hit the grinder,"

"We'll have a day before they'll tell us who we'll be facing," Vali added with a light smile, "A day to not worry over anything and actually enjoy ourselves,"

Nods were given as they all began eating their dinner, Zaria let out a light laugh, "Man, I'd have probably been swearing or something If I found out they'd paired me with Steven or Lance."

"I'm looking forward to when that happens, but I was happy that they're giving me a bit more time before then," Vali told her earning a surprised look, "What? A super challenging battle that'll push my partners and I to our limits? That will drive us to new heights and show us exactly how far we'll need to go in order to reach new levels? Who wouldn't want that?"

"That's what I'm talking about!" Lance grinned at her, "That's exactly the type of attitude I'm looking for in my future elite four though I'm going to have to beat your butt when we meet on the battlefield,"

"That maybe so, but I'll push you to your limits while it happens," Vali replied earning choking sounds from the adults and gave them a look, "What? I know my limits and my pokemon do as well. We're not on the same level as either Lance or Steven. Not even close, but we're going to do our best to drive them into a corner before they manage to beat us. We aren't going to just let them walk all over us after all,"

"But Vali there's a chance you could win," Delia protested setting down her fork.

Vali shook her head and pinned Delia with a look, "You and I both know the chances of that happening are so low even my luck can't cover that. Don't get me wrong, my pack and I are going to do our best to beat whoever we end up again, we've come too far to give up now just because we stand on too uneven ground. We're going to stand and fight as much as possible. Pushing our limits as far as possible just like anyone else in this tournament, we just know in the end we're likely going to end up the losing party. If we win, we'll likely end up against the other one and he's probably going to have seen all of our tricks by then likely resulting in counters that will at least halfway work meaning we'll lose," She smiled lightly, "Either way, I've already made it past where most first year trainers usually end up placing during their first tournament and I'm going to be battling at least one of my friends in the Indigo Colosseum under the eyes of Moltres which is awesome."

Delia opened her mouth to protest, but stopped when Sirius set a hand on her shoulder. He spoke with a slight shake of his head, "Pup, will you be happy with that?"

Vali nodded, "I will mostly because even if we end up losing, we'll still win in the end if only because of the information gained. After all," She grinned brightly at everyone, "Any information I gain during the battles will only benefit me during the future battles between us, I'll be able to use it against my opponents in the future."

"Then that it, I wish you the best of luck," Sirius looked at everyone, "To all of you, I hope at least one of you in this room wins the Conference this year,"

"It'll be me," Lance told Sirius with a grin, "I'll win it and go on to become the Champion of Kanto then Johto,"

* * *

"I truly wish Vali wouldn't put herself down like that especially with how well she's been doing in the Conference," Delia said as she sat down beside Sirius on the love-seat.

"But you have to consider how right she is when it comes to Lance and Steven," Professor Oak pointed out earning a glare and he raised up his hands, "Now Delia, the boys have been training for years longer than her and have experience when it comes to dealing with her type of trainer,"

Delia deflated after a moment, "I know, but I really want her to win if only to prove that she's wrong..."

"I know honey," Sirius rubbed her back, "But while Vali's amazing, even she can't pull off a miracle like that,"

"Sirius, you are Vali's guardian correct and Kanto still has the law in place that ten year olds require their parents permission to go to other regions correct?" Joseph asked much to everyone in the living rooms confusion.

Sirius nodded with a slight frown, "I am and Kanto does. Why do you ask, Joseph?"

"Steven is hoping that Vali might be able to come to Hoenn after the Conference is over seeing as the Mount Moon Expedition won't exact need his attention and there is a gym circuit as well as a contest circuit there," Joseph explained with a sheepish smile, "I wanted to verify that you were her true guardian, so you could give your permission. Granted, she wouldn't need it in after the 31st of July hit, but still,"

"I see, but it's up to Vali since Blaine might have her apprentice under him," Sirius said making Joseph blink a bit, "But I thought the Mount Moon Expedition was still going on?"

"It is, but I'm having someone else lead it in Steven's stead since he's going to try becoming Hoenn's Champion after the Indigo Conference is over," Joseph explained with as his pokenav rang and he took it out, "Speak of the Giratina, I need to take this. I will talk to you all later before I leave tonight,"

* * *

"Things are going to start changing, huh?" Vali asked as she sat with Steven watching Lance and Zaria try to help her little brother through a mock double battle, "We got through the prelims, so things are going to get even more intense,"

"Definitely, but we'll be ready," Steven smiled at her, "You did a lot better than I did during my first contest. I only managed to get to the third round of the prelims," He gained a slightly nervousness to his smile, "Hey, Vali, has Blaine said anything to you yet?"

"About the Apprenticeship?" Vali asked earning a nod and shook her head, "No. I'm pretty sure he's still waiting until after the Conference. Why?"

"Well, I've been thinking and have some news," Steven replied swallowing slightly, "I've decided to return to Hoenn after the Conference since I've gained to confidence and battle experience that I believe will be needed to become Champion of my own region,"

Vali's eyes widened at that as shock filled her, "What about the Mount Moon Expedition?"

"Father has agreed to keep on the person that took over leading it especially since they've been doing such a good job leading it already," Steven explained with a light smile, "Now, I was hoping that you might come with me to Hoenn on my journey,"

"Come with you?" Vali asked in a soft voice.

Steven nodded, "Come with me to Hoenn on my journey, Vali. Explore it, we have fire-types there and perfect places to take pictures. I'd be able to show you so many diffrent things and you'd probably do the same by giving me a new perspective on things."

Vali's eyes widened at the offer, "Steven..."

"Hey, you two," Lance shouted causing them to look at him, "Come on over here, we're going to show them what an actual double battle looks like,"

"Vali, you don't have to answer me now," Steven told her as they stood up, "Just tell me before I leave Kanto, okay?"

Vali nodded slowly, "Okay."

 **Guys I might not be able to update next month or the months after due to work. Mandatory overtime due to Holiday rush, I will be doing my best to get you a chapter during this time, but no promises. I will be updating at some point. I promise, but am not giving a when.**


	23. Chapter 22

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon and Harry Potter**

 **BloodyKitsune1997: Here is a new chapter, it's late, but I had a lot of overtime ahead of me. It sucked, I'm tired, but we're here! Keep an eye out on my profile, we might be seeing a Christmas special coming out.**

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 **Guest : The Galar region is an interesting subject for Vali though she would definitely go there at some point. She will have some mixed feeling towards it though won't let it stop her from properly exploring it especially when Ash travels there. **

* * *

Chapter 22

* * *

"I don't know what to do," Vali told Delia after explaining to the woman what Steven had told her the night before, "Steven wants me to come with him to Hoenn, but what if Blaine agrees to have me become his Apprentice? what am I going to do?"

"Oh Vali," Delia sighed deeply as she handed Vali a glass of water and took a seat beside the girl at the table, "This is definitely a tough decision, what do you want to do?"

Vali groaned softly, "That's the problem, Delia, I want both. I want to travel with Steven once again, but I also want to become Blaine's apprentice," She looked at the women feeling a well of stress and pain filling her heart, "I loved traveling with Steven so much, Delia. It was so much fun and I'd love to explore Hoenn with him. But Blaine's apprenticeship offer, it won't always be around..."

Delia frowned softly, "Vali, what does your heart say?"

"It wants me to travel with Steven, but..." Vali hesitated for a moment as she swallowed heavily, "Delia, Blaine's offer won't always be around. I don't think he'd give me another chance even if I impressed him," She looked at the glass of water in her hands, "I...If he offers me the apprenticeship, I...think I'm going to accept it and say no to Steven. I don't know though," She looked up at Delia feeling tears well up, "Why did he have to ask me now, Delia?"

"Because he wanted to give you time to make a decision with a clear head that wasn't rushed," Delia reached out and squeezed Vali's hands, "You'll make the correct decision even if it doesn't seem like it at first, Vali," The brown haired woman stood up, "Why don't you talk with your pokemon about it?"

* * *

Vali decided to take Delia's advice and took her pokemon to one of the Indigo Plateau's many secluded gardens. After releasing them, she had them settle around her and leaned back against Balto, "Guys, I need your help. I don't need to make a decision right away especially since part of this deals with me becoming Blaine's apprentice and that requires him actually offering that," She saw their confusion and took a deep breath, "Last night, Steven told me he was going back to Hoenn after the Conference was over though didn't specify an exact date meaning it could be a couple weeks afterwards," Everyone began letting out cries of protest and she clapped her hands over her ears until Balto let out a howl to silence them, "Thank you, Balto," He huffed lightly and licked her hand, "Anyway, He gave me an offer to come with him. Gave us an offer to come with him."

Elrond spoke from his place on her lap, " _To stay with him. He doesn't want to part from you."_

"I don't want to be so far away from him either," Vali told them, "But I don't want to give up Blaine's apprenticeship if he offers it," She looked at each of them, "We'll be able to get stronger with Blaine's help. We'll be able to reach new heights, find new techniques, and so much more if we stay in Kanto to learn under him," She closed her eyes feeling tears well up as pain formed in her heart, "But it means not being able to see Steven for so long unless its on the phone and with his penchant for caves, we'd probably only be in contact sometimes. Being able to talk with him and spend time together these past few days have been great, I miss traveling with him. I want to see Hoenn too and Steven would be an awesome guide," She felt a tear run down her cheek earning soft whines from Aragorn and Houndour, "Please guys, help me make a decision. I need you more than ever,"

Elrond's tail touched the skin of her arm more firmly. Fire that almost longed to twin with her own only it carried howled songs of loyalty and pack, Balto's deep baritone mental voice was comforting, " _Steven is pack, but even pack must seperate for short periods of time, Vali-Sister. We must stay close to Kanto. The Lord of Flames will call at any time and we must stay close until then."_

 _"Alpha is right,"_ Smaug huffed in agreement, " _Separation will do us some good. We will only get stronger if we're surrounded by the same strong opponents,"_ She opened her eyes and found Smaug looking at her, " _We want to become strong enough to protect those we care for. Our pack, our family, our clan, our friends? It will only be done if we find new opponents and get better training,"_

Strong winds and the bright summer sun beating down on a feather back, Celina's mezzo-soprano voice trilled out, " _I'd prefer it if we stayed together. You're heartache is too strong for the parting to be easy and you'll regret it if we let you say no. Another opportunity will come, Vali-sister. Alpha and Smaug might be right, but your heart is important too."_

Soft earthy rumbles and cool dark tunnels, Idril's light alto murmured, " _I want to stay together,"_ Idril touched her hand lightly with a gentle claw, " _Journey together again, Vali-Sister. We separated once before and if this would mean staying together for longer, I'd prefer it."_

Fire that danced with an energy all its own that sang about running free without restraints and traveling across grassy plains, Arwen's contralto voice sounded, " _We are herd-pack. To be together once more, I would prefer it to travel alongside them, but to be offered the chance at more strength before we're called upon is not an offer to be passed up on"_ Arwen stamped her hoof and gave Vali a look, " _But it's necessary to think of such things when the offer isn't made. It's better to enjoy the day and what time we've got left before our future battles come! Leave the future for tomorrow!"_

Deep earthen tunnels and cool gritty sand, Terra's soft alto called out, " _I want to explore that new Region and be with our friends."_

A storm right before it actually lets loose and forest in the middle of autumn. Pippin's mental voice sounded like a teenagers and kept cracking up though it was deepening a bit each time Elrond initiated the connection, " _While traveling with everyone once again would be nice, it would be best to stay in Kanto. The Lord of Flames could call at any time just like Alpha said."_

Fire that sang of rumbling earth and the feral fury of the flame, Pele's contralto sounded next, " _To stay with our friends would be nice, I wouldn't mind seeing my homeland again even if I cannot remember it well from before I was sent to that place we met in,"_ She let out a soft huff and slowly shifted to rest more comfortably on the ground, " _But that would be waiting for us regardless won't it, right? Steven won't mind if we say no because in the end we'll always be friends."_

Roaring dragons that refused to bow and steel scales that refused to break, Empress' mental voice was a mix between a light alto and mezzo-soprano, " _Go or stay, we cannot linger too long. We will gain no strength and given what is coming our way, we cannot risk such a thing."_

Fire that still had much to learn yet spoke of ages long past, Aragorn's soft boyish voice came from her right side, " _It might be best to stay in Kanto. While we might miss Steven and the others, Alpha is right as is Smaug. The Lord of Flames will be calling upon us at some point,"_ Aragorn twitched his right tail, " _But Celina is right, your heart is important too. I don't want that to happen,"_ His right tail twitched again _, "Terra has a good point. It would allow us to explore a new region. I would actually have a chance to battle,"_ His right tail twitched again _, "Empress is right, we cannot linger too long."_

Fire coated with darkness, Houndour's soft mental voice still carried some toddlerish tones, " _Dour like Stevie and others. They nice and like play. Dour wanna keep them."_

Fire intertwined with the spirits of the dead, Litwick's whispery mental voice called out, " _They're nice enough and I like the idea of Hoenn. I also like the idea of this apprenticeship. I don't really mind what we end up doing, but we'd probably be better off staying close to Kanto where the Lord of Flame may easily call us to him."_

Elrond spoke up last out of her pokemon, " _Everyone has brought up good points, but nothing will be clear to us until after Blaine offers you an Apprenticeship. Even then, you will need to make the decision."_

Vali nodded her head lightly and closed her eyes once more as Elrond removed his tail making sure no one would overwhelm her mind especially with the world she'd done with Sabrina yesterday. She spoke softly, "Thank you everyone, you've given me a lot to think about especially since this journey isn't just about me. It's about all of us."

Balto nuzzled into Vali from behind as Aragorn and Houndour did the same from beside her. She hugged Elrond tighter and he murmured softly through their connection, " _Whatever you decide, Vali, we're with you just as you've been with us. We're pack."_

* * *

"What exactly did you talk with Vali about last night?" Lance asked Steven as they walked through one of entertainment districts, "She seemed pretty distracted this morning and rushed out the door as soon as her pokemon had finished eating,"

Steven sighed deeply remembering that Vali hadn't even eaten much before leaving either only being concerned with ensuring her pokemon had been fed. He spoke with a slight frown, "I'm heading back to Hoenn."

"Seriously?" Lance looked at him in surprise, "What about your dig?"

"Father has someone taking over for me," Steven smiled lightly, "Thanks to the Conference, I've gained a lot of experience and confidence that I didn't have during my previous attempts. I think I'll actually be able to become a Champion this time around,"

Lance smiled slightly and nodded, "Good luck with that, Steven. I hope it works out."

"Thanks," Steven sighed deeply as he thought back to Lance's question, "As for your question, I asked Vali to join me,"

Lance looked a bit confused, "But shouldn't she be happy?"

"Blaine might be offering her a chance to become his apprentice," Steven answered feeling a bit bad, "And there is some other stuff especially given that Vali's only ever been in Kanto outside of her old home,"

"Shit," Lance's eyes widened, "No wonder she was distracted. I probably wouldn't be able to make a decision either," The red head grimaced, "Damn, I feel bad for her. She must feel very conflicted right now. I'm assuming the offer depends on how she does in the Conference which also deals with Blaine's personal opinion," Steven nodded and Lance sighed deeply, "You've just laid a very hard decision at her feet, Steven. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to do especially given that you'll probably be leaving within a week to two after the Conference ends,"

"Yeah," Steven felt bad for forcing this decision on Vali especially given her circumstances with the Lord of Flames.

"But you've also give her a good amount of time to make a decision," Lance shook his head, "Best to give her some space then, I bet she'll be asking her pokemon for some advice,"

"No doubt," Steven had known that when he'd asked her, "I hope that she'll agree to come along. It would be nice to show her Hoenn,"

"But what if she doesn't come with you?" Lance asked as they headed passed by one of the shops selling some form of pokemon treats that Steven knew Vali would probably want to check out at some point.

Steven knew that was very possible, "I won't protest despite being disappointed. I'll always be able to show her Hoenn at a later point in time even if it will likely not be as thoroughly as I'd like should that time be during when I'm Champion."

"I feel for you. For both of you," Lance shook his head, "I was planning to offer Vali a chance to travel with me through Johto as well,"

"You were?" Steven looked at him in shock.

Lance nodded with a grin, "Well, yeah. Seeing as I won't have to set up my challenges right away once I win the Conference, I'll be able to travel to my Johto and do everything back in my home Region. I'll get things set up, so that I can take down both the current champions one right after the other. Then it'll be a matter of setting things up so I can run the Regions my way."

Steven had known that Lance hadn't just thought this plan up over night, but that showed him how much thought the red head had put into all this, "Wow, Lance. You've really thought all of this out, haven't you?"

Lance nodded with a determined look on his face as he looked at everyone they passed, "Ever since I was a little kid and the teams were a big problem in the Regions, I wanted to make a change. I wanted to make it so no kid, no pokemon, no one would have to fear that something like Team Rocket was going to come after their partner," A bitter and hardened look came across the redheads face, "Not after my cousin's parents were killed in cold blood under Madam Rocket's orders before Silver or Gold could get to Blackthorn back when our little village was still just a dragon sanctuary that wasn't important enough to the police to warrant much interest,"

Steven suddenly felt a lot more connected to the red head than before, "Lance, I understand more than you probably know. My," He swallowed heavily, "My mom died in a Team attack back when I was a little kid on my family home. We don't know which one did it."

Lance gave him an understanding look and let out a low laugh, "That is what I want to change, Steven. The needless deaths that leave kids without fathers, mothers, uncles, and aunts not to mention the countless other family members that exist. Not to mention the pokemon, the ones who get used and left to rot when their use is up. The ones like Vali's Eevee or even Elrond. I want to change their stories," Lance clenched his fist, "If I can do that for these two Regions, I'll count it as a win. It's why I want Vali as one of my Elite, you know."

And Steven understood what Lance was trying to say very well, he smiled lightly, "Because Vali loves pokemon and will do anything to help them. She's helped both Eevee and Elrond already."

"There is that," Lance chuckled as they crossed a over a small bridge, "But it's more then that. I'm surprised you didn't say it, but then again, you've probably been somewhat blinded. Joseph's worded it pretty well, so I'll be stealing some words. Vali's a light. A bright fiery light that warms those that she cares for and beckons them close vowing to protect them. She'll protect them with everything she's got," He grinned pausing to lean against the railing, "The way she's raised Empress shows it. That Bagon was a stubborn little shit, I know many people probably would've traded her the moment she tried to hurt them. I bet she headbutted Vali a few times. Didn't she?"

Steven remembered Vali coming back to the Lab with Empress and Dragonite holding her ribs back during Christmas. He'd been more than a little angry with the dragon-type when he was told what exactly had happened, but Vali had reminded him that Empress' training was her responsibility not to mention how common injuries could be. Pushing down the flash of old anger that welled up in his chest, he nodded while looking away from Lance, "Yeah and managed to do a bit of actual damage once. Vali didn't do more than scold her and it confused a few of her pokemon."

"I'm not surprised," Lance shook his head as he stopped by the railing and leaned against it, "Vali probably stopped Dragonite from beating the shit out of Empress too," Steven looked at Lance in surprise, "I figured if she was training Empress at the Ranch, Dragonite would be there since Vali's one of the old girl's favorite people. Dragon-type's tend to keep an eye on those they care for when they're in the same area and I wouldn't be surprised if Dragonite followed you guys during your trip to Viridian City just to make sure Vali made it there alright,"

Steven would definitely be checking with Metagross to see if they remembered any pokemon following them to the city, "I see."

"That right there is why Vali's going to run into trouble when shit hits the fan," Lance looked out at the water losing his smile, "Just from hearing the stories I have about your journey, the luck she has is only going to make it worse. With the warmth she carries and a willingness to put herself into danger to protect those she cares for, the dangerous people of the world will make her their target and she'll get hurt. We need to make sure she's protected," The redhead's jaw set, "I'm not saying she's weak and her pokemon aren't. They'll have her back and do their best to protect her no matter what,"

"But they can't always do that," Steven's fist clenched a bit, "There are times they can't be with her and places they're not able to go, I get it," He looked at the red head wondering where this was coming from, "But why bring this up?"

Lance's amber eyes were filled with dark emotions as he turned towards Steven and began to speak in a lower tone than before, "When I went home, my mother was meeting with Gold who visits us from time to time to check on the pokemon. Normally this wouldn't be alarming, Silver was there too as was Crystal. The only time more than one of the Original dex holders are ever gathered together within my home is to ensure we're prepared just in case a new Team decides to appear," Steven's breath caught in his throat, "If this is happening in Johto, it'll be happening in Kanto meaning the other Regions will be following. We need to prepare our Regions for the Teams that are coming Steven whether they turn out to be like the most recent ones or like Rocket/Aqua/Magma."

"I understand," Steven was thankful someone had the guts to actually say something, "Thanks for saying something,"

"No problem," Lance nodded to him, "I was trying to find a good way to bring it up. Just wish it hadn't been because of Vali," The red head chuckled softly, "Funny how she managed to help me bring it up,"

"She has a weird way of helping stuff happen even without being present," Steven smiled slightly as he thought of his improving relationship with his father, "She's one of the most amazing friends I've ever had. I will never regret taking the chance on having her as my traveling partner,"

"I'm kind of annoyed you managed to snap her up first," Lance told him and grinned at the confusion painting Steven's face, "You weren't the only one that got asked if they'd travel with her for a little while. You ended up arriving at the lab a week ahead of me though,"

Steven realized how lucky he'd been to have Vali as his traveling partner, "Well I'm somewhat glad you were tardy though it makes me wonder if we might've ended up traveling together if you'd have arrived at the same time as me."

Lance blinked a bit and considered his words before shrugging, "Maybe, I hadn't considered that or really having a traveling partner before. It would've been interestin-"

"Hey!" They both turned at the shout and found Zaria running towards them with Vali following at a more sedate pace, "Lance, Steven, there you two are,"

"Were you looking for us?" Steven asked as Zaria skidded to a stop on the bridge.

"She wanted to wander with you guys and explore the area a bit more thoroughly," Vali explained as Zaria worked to catch her breath, "She found me while I was wandering around after I spent some time with my pokemon and Delia,"

Zaria stood up straight and pointed at them, "We need to have some fun together! We're probably going to be battling against one another meaning we need to do something non-competitive and fun!"

"Battling is fun," Lance pointed out.

Zaria made a face at the red-head, "Fun in a way that lets our pokemon rest like we're supposed to, Dummy."

"So I was thinking," Vali cut in before an argument could start up, "We could find some places to eat and window shop. Maybe find a theater or something, I've only really seen pokemon food shops so far, but I'm sure there might be something else here,"

"Sounds like a plan," Lance nodded his head lightly.

Zaria clapped her hands with a squeal and took off, "Let's go!"

Vali let out a low sigh, "How she has so much energy when she's up most of the night, I have no idea."

Steven looked over Vali carefully as they began to follow Zaria and noted that she definitely looked better than this morning. The talk with Delia and her pokemon had helped quite a bit. While she would likely wait until Blaine had made his offer, she'd probably gotten her thoughts settled into some form of order. A tightness he hadn't noticed in his chest eased up making it a bit easier to breath. Lance spoke as they all drifted after Zaria, "So Vali, you're probably going to be guiding Ash on his journey, right?"

"Yes though it'll be all his own. I'll be acting much like Steven did for me," Vali smiled lightly, "Why do you ask?"

"Seeing as it might be the first time you'll be going through Johto, I might try to tag along during some points if that's okay. If I'm not too busy with my Champion duties of course," Lance grinned at her, "Help to guide you guys through, I'd offer it now, but I figure you've got enough on your plate and will probably want to stay close to Kanto. Mew knows I stayed close to Johto during my first few years after becoming a trainer,"

"You did?" Vali looked at Lance in surprise while Steven grimaced a bit.

Lance nodded as they stepped around a small group of people, "I actually stuck by Blackthorn for a year once I completed my journey and competed in my first Conference to make sure my dragon-types were getting the best care they possibly could while we grew stronger underneath the teaching of my clans masters. It wasn't until we were sure we'd learned everything they could teach us that we set off on our own once again and this time for Kanto," He smiled lightly at her, "Had things worked out differently, I might've been your traveling partner rather than Steven or we both would've traveled with you as the two of us had been discussing before you'd arrived."

Vali's eyes went a bit wide, "Really?"

Lance nodded and shifted to rest his arms behind his head, "Kind of sucks because traveling with you would've been an awesome experience, I've always wanted to know what it would be like to travel with someone else beside my pokemon," He turned his head to grin at her, "So promise me to say when Ash's journey makes it into Johto, I want to help out the kid and experience what its like. Hell, I wanna know when you're in Johto even if it's for a short visit. We can meet up and I'll show you around, alright?"

Vali nodded with a grin, "Sounds like a plan, I'm looking forward to it though are you sure? It sounds like it'd be a lot of work especially if you'd be a champion."

Lance shrugged lightly, "Nah, you're one of my friends and Ash has grown on me. Gary is included in this as well. I'm sure Steven agrees with me on this."

"I do," Vali turned to him and Steven nodded with a warm smile, "It won't be a bother. I've known both of them for awhile after all,"

"Thank you both then," Vali looked relieved, "It's nice to know I won't be alone if I need some help,"

Vali surprised them both with a one-armed hug since they were on either side of her. Steven recovered quickly and carefully returned the hug even if it was somewhat awkward with Lance. Lance did the same on Vali's other side. She let them go soon enough when Zaria called out to her and hurried to catch up to the dark-type master-in-training. Lance spoke as they moved a bit more apart, "That was unexpected, I've never been hugged by Vali before."

"She doesn't hug people that often," Steven relayed as they moved to catch up with the girls, "But it is nice when she does. The first time she ever hugged me was after her first gym battle. She'd only had Balto, Smaug, Elrond, and Celina back then. All of them were in their first forms back then,"

"She won that one with Balto and Smaug too, right?" Lance asked narrowing his eyes and Steven nodded, "I'll have to see if they've got that battle recording public or not,"

"Probably not since it was the first gym battle," Steven shook his head.

Lance sighed, "Another more personal reason to become Champion then."

Steven looked at Vali and smiled softly as he thought of just how much she'd grown as a trainer alongside her pokemon since those first days. Looking at her battles both ending in wins and losses, he felt pride in helping her reach this point though almost all of it was done by herself. Each of her pokemon from back then to now, they'd grown quite a bit though both Aragorn and Houndour would have quite a bit of growing to do before they'd be ready to join their siblings on the battlefield. But if anyone could help them reach that point, it would be their mother/sister-figure, Vali.

* * *

Vali looked at the fishing pole in her hand for a few moments before shaking her head and casting the line like everyone else. When there was a tug on the line, she pulled and grimaced as water suddenly splashed outward as the Magikarp attached to her hook began flailing. The Nurse Joy in charge gave her an apologetic look and a towel, "Sorry about that, I honestly don't know why the need to use Magikarp."

Because most people think Magikarp are useless until they evolve into Gyarados, Vali avoided saying it as she took the towel, "Thank you."

"Twenty," The attendant read out as they got the Magikarp to stop squirming before putting it into a tank off to the side.

Vali nodded and took the plastic card offered to her. A gleaming red 20 printed on the white plastic and she wondered who her opponent would be. Heading over to where she'd agreed to meet up with the others, she could see Steven already standing there and wondered if he was holding the matching twenty in his hand causing the light weight plastic to feel like lead in her hand for a few moments before she steeled herself. If one of her friends held the other card, she'd face them with all the fire and bravery she was able to muster. After all, they'd come this far and her pokemon were ready to face any challenge no matter how difficult it would be. Steven looked up at her from where he'd been scanning his pokenav's screen, "I've got 40."

"20," Vali felt relief run through her, "Looks like our match will have to wait a bit longer,"

"Seems like it," Steven grinned lightly as she moved to settle against the wall beside him and he spotted Litwick peering out of her shadow, "Litwick's in your shadow today?"

Vali nodded as Litwick bounced a bit in greeting, "She wanted to see all the people and absorb some of the excess energy everyone was giving off. During times like this, she can do it safely."

"That's good," Steven reached out and carefully rubbed the top of Litwick's head, "I'm happy she get's to enjoy herself then,"

"I hope Lance and Zaria get done soon though," Vali said as she looked around them, "It's a bit too loud and crowded for my taste,"

Steven chuckled softly, "Just a bit, it's always a surprise even if there are only 64 people left."

Vali nodded while giving each of those around them a careful look. Not many around her physical age were left, she bet only herself and maybe one other were among the group of contestants vying for the chance to challenge the Elite Four as well as the Champion should they manage the former. Hell, a majority like herself were attempting to prove themselves worthy of becoming apprentices or Ace material. She felt a sense of amazement at the fact that she'd made it to the top 64 in her first year as a trainer. Grinning slightly, she said, "I can't believe that I've managed to make it this far in my first year as a trainer. The top 64."

"You've done very well," Steven's lips pulled into a warm smile, "I hope that I'll actually be able to catch one of your matches this time around,"

"Same," Vali murmured in agreement, "Things are going to get a lot tougher,"

"No doubt," Steven nodded as he began scanning the crowd much like she had, "I wonder who we'll be facing in the next round,"

Vali nodded as she felt Litwick move within her shadow. It was an odd half way physical and mental sense that appeared whenever Litwick appeared in her shadow. She could actually 'talk' with Litwick though it was more through impressions and colors than anything else unlike the words she shared with Elrond. She would need to speak with Agatha at some point to find out if she'd be able to actually talk with Litwick just like Elrond, but that would be for later. Still it was weird feeling Litwick move within her shadow, it was somewhat itchy and uncomfortable though she was becoming used to it.

"Hey," Zaria called out as she walked up, "Got your numbers?"

"40," Steven said holding up his card.

"20," Vali held up her own.

Zaria's eyes widened, "2-20?" She held up her own card and revealed a gleaming red 20, "Looks like we're facing one another in the next round."

"Y-yeah," Vali stared at the plastic card in shock, "Huh,"

"Hey, guys," Lance walked up with a grin, "I'm number 10-" He paused for a moment with a frown, "What's going on?"

"Vali and Zaria are going up against each other in the next round," Steven told him as Vali gripped the plastic card in her hand just a bit harder than before and Litwick shifted at her shift in emotions, "Given that we're heading into the final stretch of battles and we've all made it this far, I'm not that surprised,"

"Kind of brutal though," Lance commented with a shake of his head.

"Not really," Zaria grinned suddenly clenching the plastic card in her hand with a determined look on her face, "We decided to become rivals back in Vermilion, but we haven't really had much of a chance to face each other on a competitive stand point. Officially speaking,"

"Right," Vali shook off her nerves as she realized what Zaria was talking about, "It should be interesting to battle against one another,"

* * *

Vali's pokemon took the fact that they were to battle against Zaria rather well all things considered. They'd understood that as the Conference progressed there was going to be an increased chance they'd face their friends. So despite feeling some initial reluctance, they were ready to face their friends in battle and give them one to remember no matter the outcome. To ensure that, they threw themselves into their training. On Vali's side of things, she focused on creating strategies to beat Zaria knowing that it wouldn't be an easy fight despite the other trainers struggles within the Conference so far.

Any time not spent training or going over strategies was strictly for relaxing, Vali would not let her pokemon train at all during this time even if they weren't participating in the Conference. She didn't want to risk anyone burning out or getting sick because they were training too hard especially since Aragorn was now able to begin the harsher battle training and actually participate in battles as per Professor Oak's check up. Houndour was still a few days from being allowed to do light training and would be stuck with baby toys. Aragorn was all too eager to train himself into the ground though meaning her attention had to be focused on him much of the time.

* * *

Balto took him to the side at the end of their final training day and gave him a talking to as was his duty as Alpha. When they came back, Aragorn actually looked scolded and came to sit by Vali's feet. Elrond spoke from across the clearing where he was keeping most of their activities from damaging their surroundings, " _Aragorn wishes to apologize for worrying you, Vali. He was just so excited to finally get to actually train it didn't occur to him that his actions would worry you so much."_

Vali bent down with a warm smile and rubbed between Aragorn's ears causing those amber grey eyes to spark a bit, "Just try not to train so hard at this age, alright? You're very young and while a pokemon's body can stand up to a lot, you are still far too young for such a thing. I don't want you to exhaust your inner flame, Little one."

Aragorn barked and Elrond translated, " _I understand, Vali-Sis-Mama."_

"Good," Vali stood up, "Now take a break okay, you've trained enough for now. I'll get you a snack and something to drink," She headed over to her bag, "When you're finished, I want you to take a little nap okay, Little King. When you wake up, we'll continue on, okay?"

Aragorn let out a soft bark and followed her towards where she left her bag. Once Aragorn was taken care of, Vali walked over to where Balto had settled down to rest for a few moments and wrapped her arms around his neck earning a low rumble, "Thanks, Balto. I wouldn't know what I'd do without you," Balto nuzzled her softly and sighed deeply against her shirt, "Tomorrow is the battle against Zaria, she might've had a had time so far in the tournament, but it doesn't mean we'll have it easy. She's probably training like crazy just like us too," She hugged him just a bit tighter, "But we're not going to let her win tomorrow, we are going to win. I want to face Steven or Lance at some point in the Conference and won't let Zaria beat us. But that's not just why I want to beat her," She released Balto to look at him and grinned brightly feeling a fire burn in her chest, "I want to show all those people watching what exactly we can do. We're awesome, Balto. I want to make it further than the top 64. Maybe the top 16 at least, I want to be one of the few first year trainers to reach that kind of spot. I want to show Blaine just want kind of skills we have. We've done well in doing that so far," She sat down and pulled out her pokedex, "I've made a few modifications to that one strategy like I said I would..."

* * *

Vali walked out onto the battlefield and found a rock area staring her in the face meaning Pele would have an advantage if she was used. Aragorn walked beside Vali once again looking at the battlefield in awe and slight envy. She found Zaria walking out across from her with Sableye on her shoulders though the ghost/dark moved to her side once they reached the trainer box. The announcer spoke up, "Welcome to the final matches of the Prelims where we finally get to the real deal, six-on-six, battle royals! Our first battle of the day is by two rather wonderful ladies. In the green corner, we have Zaria Warner of Cocona Village in Oblivia!"

A cheer rose from the crowd as Zaria waved, "Hey everyone! I hope to give you a wonderful battle."

"And in the red corner, we have Valkyrie Potter of Pallet Town here in Kanto!" The announcer shouted earning a louder cheer from the crowd, "She is quickly becoming a crowd favorite here,"

Vali flushed lightly and waved to the crowd, "Hello everyone! I too am hoping to give you all a wonderful battle," She looked towards Zaria and grinned at her friend, "Let the fires within our hearts and that of our pokemon's become visible to all here today, my friendly rival!"

"I here that!" Zaria shouted with a matching grin and took out a pokeball as Vali mimicked her.

The announcer let out a gasp, "What's this I'm hearing? Are Valkyrie Potter-Black and Zaria Warner rivals?"

"Friendly rivals," Zaria said as the Referee stepped up.

"This will be a six-on-six match!" The Referee began as the pokeball in Vali's warmed, "The rules are much the same as any other match within the tournament only we will be taking a short intermission once one side loses three pokemon to switch around the terrain at random between the three remaining field-types. If both trainers are ready, you may begin!"

Both of them released at once, Zaria shouting, "Darken the skies with your wings, Murkrow!"

"Battle with me, my friend!" Vali released Elrond who appeared opposite of Murkrow.

The two immediately began to attack one another with Elrond simultaneously setting up Electrical Terrain. Murkrow revealed that Zaria had ensured that she'd taught him every dark-type move naturally available to it and made sure he'd been able to master it as much as possible in his first form state. True mastery would only come in his secondary state, the level of skill Murkrow showed was still definitely above what any of his species being trained by a non-single-type mastery trainer could hope to gain though. Elrond dodged each attack as best as he could and ripped up pieces of the field to guard against that which couldn't be dodged. He spoke through their bond sounding excited, " _Murkrow is definitely powerful. I can beat him soon enough, but this is definitely a lot of fun."_

 _"I'm glad to hear it, Elrond,"_ Vali smiled warmly at her partners excitement, " _The energy isn't causing you any pain, is it?"_

 _"Houndour's presence alongside Litwick's has actually helped me become somewhat used to it,"_ Elrond managed to hit Murkrow with a high powered Thunder Bolt earning a loud squawk of pain and causing the dark/fly-type to lose altitude due to the electricity paralyzing its nerves for a few moments, " _While uncomfortable, it doesn't cause me pain unless I'm actually hit by it. I won't allow something as simple as discomfort to let me lose a match like this especially when I have an advantage,"_

 _"I would never accuse you of such a thing,_ " Vali shook her head lightly earning a low chuckle.

" _I know you would not,"_ Elrond got in close to Murkrow as the bird began to shake off the electricity that had been introduced into its nervous system, " _Lets move this onto the next match shall we?"_

Elrond used uppercut-ted Murkrow with Thunder Punch sending the avian upward and followed after him to finish it off with an Iron Tail towards the ground. Zaria returned her pokemon before he could hit the ground as Murkrow wouldn't be able recover in time to prevent a bad landing. She gave Vali a look of acknowledgement while switching pokeballs, "Elrond is definitely going to be a tough pokemon to beat despite being a psychic. You've done great work with him though having the those two new pokemon of yours have definitely helped to build up his resistance to dark-types haven't they?"

"As much as they could, it doesn't replace variety and experience though," Vali replied as Elrond settled in front of her as Zaria primed the pokeball, "You've trained Murkrow well. Had he been in his evolved form, we would've likely fallen, but then again, it couldn't be guaranteed especially as he'd likely only been newly evolved meaning not quite in control of his power giving us the upper hand,"

"True enough," Zaria shrugged lightly, "Whatever would've happened, we won't know until our next battle and Murkrow has evolved. For now, we must focus on the here and now," She released her next pokemon, "Cut loose and shred them, Nuzz!"

Nuzz the Nuzleaf appeared on the field and gave Elrond a quick nod as Vali mentally groaned at Zaria's choice. Of course, Zaria would choose Nuzz who Elrond would have to work double time on damaging. Then again, Zaria would have a hard time hurting Elrond unless she managed to find some of the prized dark-type TMs that could get pretty costly especially when one was trying to get permanent versions which was the one the other girl likely looked into getting. She took a deep breath as the Referee announced for them to start and Elrond added onto Electric Terrain which would hopefully ensure their attacks would do more damage against the Nuzleaf. Elrond started off the offensive attacks by using Electro-Ball. Nuz dodged the attack and retaliated with Razor Leaf releasing it in a cloud-like formation that was actually quite common among higher levels of competition. Elrond dispelled it using Psychic, but had to back-peddle quickly to avoid Nuz who's fist was alight with dark-type energy. Rather than peruse the attack, Nuz released another cloud of Razor Leaf that Elrond quickly dispelled.

This pattern continued for a short while, Vali frowned slightly and spoke to Elrond through their connection, " _They fight like we do. Not exactly, but..."_

 _"Similar enough that it is somewhat disconcerting,"_ Elrond sounded slightly annoyed, " _I understand why our opponents get so annoyed with us now,"_

 _"Agreed,"_ Vali eyed the battlefield and came up with a plan, " _Elrond, let's give them a taste of their own medicine. Use the discarded leaves as a smokescreen to hide, you remember what happened back during those first couple days in Pallet after Viridian, right?"_

Elrond's left ear twitched a bit and a mental chuckle sounded, " _While I do not appreciate the thought of getting wet, I suppose I shouldn't complain too much especially if it means overcoming our disadvantages."_

With that, Elrond began to set things up by gathering the discarded leaves created by Nuz's Razor Leaf attack. Nuz stared at the leaves swirling around him as the announcer shouted, "What's this? Elrond and Valkyrie turning Zaria's attack back on their opponent?"

Elrond sent the leaves rushing towards Nuz and created a large amount of clones to shield himself with while working on the next phase of their plan. Nuz cleared away the Razor Leaf cloud with what looked to be Air Cutter revealing the Double Team clones. Nuz began using a mixture of Bullet Seed and Air Cutter to get rid of the clones. Elrond was revealed to be floating above the battlefield with an Electro Ball held at the tip of his Iron Tail coated tail. He had his eyes closed and his cheek pouches were glowing brightly as electricity built up within the air. Vali looked away from him towards Zaria when the other girl asked, "What on earth is he doing?"

Vali let out a light laugh, "Something we just came up with on the fly," Zaria stared at her with a wide eyed look, "Might as well give it a shot and even if it ends up failing, we'll just figure out how to use it in a diffrent way," She felt the electricity in the air reach that same level it had back during that sudden storm, "Elrond, go for it!"

" _Got it!"_ Elrond shouted as he released the Electro Ball and a good bit of the electricity he'd built up into the sky.

The ball of electricity shot upwards and disappeared into the sky as Elrond floated towards the ground panting a bit heavily looking slightly exhausted. Nuz eyed the sky in distrust for a few moments, but when nothing happened, he resumed the battle. Elrond dodged the initial strike, but was grazed by the follow up Sucker Punch causing pain to flow through their connection. She winced slightly, but focused on sending strength to Elrond while glancing towards the sky. A small smile formed on her lips at the sight of clouds forming unnoticed due to the fact the sun had yet to be covered. Sending a mental image towards Elrond, she spoke in an encouraging tone, " _Keep it up, Elrond. The plan is coming together."_

 _"Good,"_ Elrond grimaced as Nuz scored yet another blow, " _I hope it starts soon. This one is becoming difficult,"_

It would seem that the dark-type energy was beginning to wear on Elrond. Elrond landed a Thunder Punch and Nuz retaliated with a Sucker Punch only to pause when rain began to spatter. Zaria muttered softly, "Rain?"

"Huh?" The announcer spoke up, "It seems that we're being struck by a sudden rain storm folks,"

"Elrond, you know what to do," Vali grinned as the rain began the dripping rain slowly harshened into a down pour, "Let's shock them into unconsciousness!"

"This was your plan!" Zaria realized with a shout earning a bright laugh as Elrond began using the water to boost his electrical attacks, "You called this storm, didn't you?"

Vali merely smiled at her friend as Nuz did his best to deal with Elrond's attacks. Nuz's inbuilt resistance was good, but getting soaked to the bone with water gave Elrond's electricity an easier path into his nervous system. Despite getting a rather harsh dose of electricity, Nuz dealt quite a bit of damage to Elrond. Enough so that when the sudden storm finally eased, the two were barely standing with Elrond unable to continue floating and their connection just barely holding on. She gripped his pokeball tightly feeling pain coiling through her mind and knew she'd need to meditate deeply in order to deal with it. Elrond and Nuz stared at one another before their eyes slowly closed as one with their bodies collapsing onto the ground. The referee raised his flag and called out, "Dual knock out! Both trainers please return your pokemon and release your next pick!"

The crowd screamed and cried as they returned their pokemon. Vali whispered praises and thanks to Elrond before placing his pokeball in its spot. She took out Pele's pokeball after glancing at the field and released her, "Come out and battle with me, My Friend!"

"Let the moon shine upon us all even when the sun shines down upon us, Moon!" Zaria released the pokemon within her own pokeball at the same time reveal an Umbreon.

Vali spoke with a light grin, "Moon truly is a beautiful pokemon, Zaria. He's lucky to have you. Pele, Heat Wave!"

"Thanks, Vali," Zaria grinned at her, "It took awhile to get him to this level, but I'm proud of him," Pele burned away the water surrounding her and Moon dodged backwards, "Huh, she's going to be a difficult opponent for us, but we'll get through this. Moon , Swift!"

"Magnitude," Vali countered and Pele stamped her hoof on the ground causing it to shake disrupting Moon's attack as the lithe fox spluttered in stumbled, "You'll have to do more than that, Zaria. Pele's a master of her move-pool, my friend," She smiled lightly, "Pele, bring him close and heat things up with Hot Pot!"

Pele let out a warm coo and began using Earth Power to toss Moon the Umbreon close enough for them to use Hot Pot. Zaria shouted, "Oh no you don't! Moon, Swift and Rain Dance!"

The Swift Moon released was more of a condensed beam then the varied stream of stars Vali was used to which meant they'd have to do a lot more playing around with that move in the future. She quickly called out, "Sunny Day, Pele!" The Rain Dance was cancelled out before it could even begin, "Trying to exploit a hole in my defenses you'll know I'll have covered by know, my friend?"

"Thought I'd try it," Zaria shrugged lightly, "Besides it gave us some breathing room, you're far too good at keeping up a continuous stream of attacks," Moon launched a Shadow Ball at Pele who blocked it with a wall of earth and began setting up things for Hot Pot, "It's kind of annoying especially when you've got pokemon with the stamina able to keep it up,"

"A big part of our training goes into that," Vali replied with a small shrug as Moon tried to disrupt Pele's set up or weaken it, "You're a frustrating opponent as well, Zaria. It's been odd to face someone who fights so much like myself. Hit and run tactics only following a semi-diffrent path," She grinned brightly while bending down to run her fingers across Aragorn's head, "But it's also awesome, I feel so excited and determined to win. It makes me adjust my strategies and work even harder for the victory. I cannot wait to see how the rest of our battle progresses,"

"Agreed though it seems we're at a stalemate at the moment," Zaria said with a grimace at the completed Hot-Pot and Moon's pacing form, "We know better than to try and go inside that thing. Pele isn't going to exit it without a fight,"

"So it seems," Vali murmured in agreement with a light smile, "But I can end the stalemate easily,"

"How?" Zaria gave her a searching look filled with suspicion.

"Numel and Camerupt are not much for tunneling. They allow the lava to do it for them and simply manipulate the flow of things to suit their needs," Vali replied having decided to keep up the semi-cryptic words and statements that she'd been saying since her first match of the tournament, "To end this stalemate, Pele need only manipulate the flow,"

Zaria's eyes narrowed as the announcer commented, "Well that was certainly cryptic."

"Pele, I think Moon is getting a bit cold out here," Vali said in a light tone.

"Moon, jump!" Zaria shouted as she realized what Vali meant.

Moon began to follow his trainers orders just a hole opened up beneath him. Before Zaria could breath a sigh of relief, a second hole opened up and a piece of earth shot outward slamming into Moon. Moon hit the ground and fell into another hole. Vali spoke as the crowd started to murmur, "Pele will make it quick."

"Moon might surprise you," Zaria replied while staring at the Hot-Pot with frown, "But regardless, he likely won't be able to continue battling meaning the field's will be switching. Any ideas which we'll have to deal with?"

"Nope," Vali shook her head, "It'll be fun to see what we'll be dealing with though,"

Zaria snorted softly, "Yeah."

They both focused on the battle again as a brilliant white light pierced through Hot-Pot. When it faded, the dome-like structure was beginning to crumble showing that Pele was no longer maintaining it at all. The dome crumbled completely revealing both pokemon with Moon completely unconscious and Pele standing with what looked like a circular wound on her chest. The almost star-burst-like burn mark was the tell-tale sign of a Hyper Beam. Vali's jaw dropped a bit both because of the fact Pele was still standing after taking a Hyper Beam to the chest and that Zaria had taught one of her pokemon that move. More specifically the former, Pele was still conscious after taking a Hyper Beam to the chest where most pokemon would be unconscious.

"Mother of Mew, you taught Moon Hyper Beam?" Vali asked as Zaria returned the unconscious Umbreon.

"Trump card," Zaria sighed deeply, "I was hoping it would've knocked out Pele, but she's a tougher pokemon then I expected,"

The announcer spoke up, "We'll be taking a ten minute intermission to do a field change. Miss Potter-Black, you may heal your pokemon and give your injured pokemon to the waiting Nurse Joy. Miss Warner, you may give your injured pokemon to the waiting Nurse Joy. If either of you wish to make a substitution, please do so within this time frame."

Vali returned Pele and headed into the small trainer's lounge. A Nurse Joy was waiting for her and smiled warmly, "Miss Potter-Black, I can take your pokemon."

"I'd appreciate it," Vali handed over Elrond and Pele's pokeball, "I know there isn't much that can be done for Pele in such a short span of time. I mostly wish to know how much strain she'll be able to deal with and if it'd be better to forfeit her," Nurse Joy looked a little surprised and she smiled lightly at the pink haired woman, "My pack's health is more important than a victory especially when the rest of them are more than strong enough to fight for us. She's done enough. They both did,"

"It's a pleasure to see at least one trainer this year has some form of sense," Nurse Joy took the pokeballs with a gentle smile, "I will be back within nine minutes. I wish you the best of luck,"

"Thank you, Nurse Joy. I know my pokemon are in the best possible hands," Vali replied and moved to take a seat.

* * *

Vali re-entered the trainers box and nodded to Zaria while noting the grass field feeling thankful that they'd gotten lucky once more. She released Pele onto the field with Zaria releasing a Sneasel. To Zaria and the crowd's surprise, the fire-type master-in-training immediately said, "I forfeit Pele."

Vali returned Pale immediately and pulled out a diffrent pokeball as Zaria asked, "But why?"

"That Hyper Beam of Moon did internal damage, I won't risk Pele's life over a battle especially against a dear friend," Vali smiled lightly, "Come out and battle with me, my friend," Arwen appeared on the field earning a surprised look from Zaria who'd likely believed that the Ponyta wouldn't be making an appearance, "Arwen, let's give our friends a taste of our training. Flame Charge!"

Arwen took off with a whiny as fire flared to life around her and Sneasel had to move quickly in order to dodge the attack heading towards it. Arwen paired Flame Charge with Stomp and Ember. Sneasel did its best to dodge and attack back with Icy Wind. Sneasel stumbled and Arwen slammed into it sending the sharp claw pokemon flying with a sharp cry of pain as her Flame Charge began to burn it. Sneasel quickly got back up and retaliated with Ice Shard that Arwen darted out of the way of. Arwen stomped her hoof and pawed at the ground with a neigh earning a snarl from Sneasel. Zaria shouted, "Sneasel, Underground! This one isn't something we can beat normally, we're going to have to play things out a diffrent way."

Sneasel growled before quickly digging into the ground and disappearing just as Arwen raced towards it with another Flame Charge. Vali frowned softly as she considered the options they could take, "Arwen, Sunny Day."

Arwen began pacing around the field as she obeyed the order and Vali tried to work out a plan. The match up wasn't a good one especially since Arwen wouldn't be able to dig after Sneasel unlike Balto. Perhaps she'd been too hasty in her decision, she internally sighed at the the thought before banishing it and focusing on the battlefield a bit more closely. Sneasel was likely lying in wait and trying to pin-point the best possible way to get the jump on Arwen. She glanced down at Aragorn who was looking at the battlefield intently and inwardly smiled at the sight. It showed he was doing his best to learn which was a good thing and meant they'd be starting off well when it got to his time to finally battle someone. She looked back up and spotted Arwen slowing down slightly as Zaria shouted, "Now, Sneasel!"

"Arwen, Flame Wheel!" Vali shouted as Sneasel burst out of the ground by Arwen.

Sneasel landed on Arwen's back with silvery claws clearly intent on causing pain and dug them in. Vali's warning didn't come in time to stop that, but Arwen managed to hear her through the pain. Fire exploded outward burning Sneasel, it didn't cause the small pokemon to let go immediately. Arwen began to race around as Sneasel screamed in pain and Vali grimaced hoping the little pokemon let go soon. When Sneasel finally let go, it fell to the ground and the two trainers let out horrified gasps at the sight of Sneasel's burned fur. Well, what was left of it. Zaria returned Sneasel, "I'm so sorry, Sneasel."

"Please tell me how Sneasel is and if it needs anything," Vali said with a horrified look on her face, "I'm so sorry,"

Zaria nodded with a grimace, "I will," She took out a diffrent pokeball, "I'll definitely have to think of something to prevent that from happening again," She closed her eyes briefly likely working to center herself before opening them, "But now is not the time to dwell on it, we have to battle. While not a dark-type like the rest of my team, she's still dear to me and will hopefully give us the edge we need against you! Let the ground break apart and the dead's baleful eyes stare forth at our enemies, Grim!"

A Marowak appeared on the field wielding a longer than usual bone club. The Marowak let out a cheerful cry and began to dance lightly around earning a few chuckles from the crowd. Vali's heart felt a bit lighter at the sight of Grim who's cheerful and playful nature rarely seemed to stray. Zaria could have chosen a diffrent pokemon to use before resorting to her starter, but likely wanted the light hearted option that had the added bonus of giving her a type advantage. Smiling lightly, she spoke as Arwen neighed a greeting to Grim, "Grim hasn't lost her cheerful edge. Are those feathers I see?"

"She wanted them from Murkrow," Zaria shrugged lightly, "So long as they don't fight about it, I'm not going to comment. Grim, we need to finish this fast. Arwen's already hurt thanks to Sneasel, so make it quick for her. Bonemerage,"

Grim let out a shout and threw her club at Arwen who took off at a run that was a lot slower than before showing that the injuries Sneasel had given her were definitely taking their toll. Arwen attacked back with Ember and Flame Charge that Grim quickly dodged. Grim showed how accurate she was by managing to hit Arwen's speedy flame covered form as it raced across the field with another Bonemerage. Arwen's flames sputtered and died as the Ponyta skidded to a halt after the attack. Arwen wasn't unconscious, but she was definitely dazed. Vali took out the Ponyta's pokeball knowing that this was the end of the battle and returned her pokemon deciding it was better to avoid stressing the possible concussion. While pokemon were tougher than humans, a concussion was no laughing matter regardless of species and Arwen had done enough as it was.

"Come out and battle with me, my friend," Smaug appeared on the field with a roar and Zaria grimaced a bit at the sight, "Smaug, we're done to the last two pokemon on Zaria's team and the final three for us. I'm counting on you to ensure our pack doesn't need to extend anymore hands into the fight," Smaug's eyes narrowed as he nodded, "You know what to do,"

Smaug began to the battle with Smokescreen earning a chuckle from Zaria, "Based on that one battle I saw in the replays, I can't say what you're going to have him do with that."

"That's the fun of it, isn't it?" Vali replied with a grin.

"It's a good strategy though useless if there is a flying or psychic-type capable of getting rid of the smoke," Zaria replied earning a shrug.

"I'm aware, but it's perfect for situations like this," Vali watched Smaug pull out of the clouds avoiding the Bonemerage that had been heading toward him and lit it on fire causing an explosion, "Strategies are made to be adjusted after all,"

Grim was a bit burnt, but no worse for wear thanks to her species' natural high defense. Grim's eyes narrowed at Smaug and she used Bonemerage again. Thanks to his wings and excellent vision, he was easily able to dodge the attack. Smaug decided to play it smart for the most part keeping his attacks at a distance with Air Slash, Flamethrower, and Dragon Rage. When felt it worth the risk, Smaug got in close enough to attack with Iron Tail, Slash, and Fire Punch. Grim managed to score a few hits and nearly managed to get Smaug with a Thunder Punch. The battle ended with another one of Smaug's burning cloud's. There was a small sigh from Zaria as she returned Grim and pulled out Zorua's pokeball, "I was kind of hoping I'd managed to get us on an even level, ya know."

"There's always next time," Vali offered earning a small chuckle.

"True," Zaria released Zorua, "Entangle the senses and fool the mind, Zorua," A Charizard appeared across the field and Vali inwardly grinned at the confused looks on everyone's faces likely at the lack of diffrent pokemon, "Okay, Bud. You know what to do!"

"Smaug, let's get that fox!" Vali shouted in return inwardly laughing.

The fake Charizard flew upwards towards Smaug with some competency showing that it had practice meaning that Zaria had likely been training Zorua with Murkrow. Now you would think that Zaria wouldn't let Zorua go after Smaug in an aerial battle given how fragile the Illusion ability was, Illusion wouldn't actually be disrupted unless a few key introduced. The first was pain which was easier to do when the Zorua/Zoroark were young. The second was over saturation which occurred when another type of energy was injected into the cloak of specialized dark-type energy the species used to fool the senses to the point they couldn't hold up the cloak anymore. So Zaria was safe enough to send Zorua into an aerial battle with Smaug for the moment, the older girl would have to be very careful though and make sure they were grounded before Zorua's Illusion was broken.

Smaug slammed into Zorua with a fiery snarl as the fake Charizard used Pursuit. The two grappled with Zorua doing his damnedest to avoid being caught by the fire filled maw attempting to snap at him. Zorua released a pulsing ball of dark-type energy from its mouth forcing Smaug to break away in order to not get hit. Zorua's attack managed to scratch Smaug, but the Charizard dodged it for the most part. Smaug began using Flamethrower and Dragon Rage forcing Zorua to evade the attacks. Without pausing for a single second, Smaug gave chase and the two put on a show for the crowd. Eventually one of the attacks hit and broke Zorua's illusion causing the fox to hit the ground with a loud cry of pain, the blue-green flames of Dragon Rage overwhelming the dark-type illusion.

"It looks like the jig is up for Zaria and her Zorua!" The announcer shouted as the crowd roared its approval, "I wonder if they'll be able to recover from this blow or if Vali and Smaug will seal their win with this battle,"

"Zorua, you okay, bud?" Zaria asked with a slight frown as Smaug's attack stopped and Zorua rose up with a soft yip, "Alright, we can't fly anymore, but that doesn't mean we can't keep fighting," Zorua let out a determined bark and gave Smaug a glare as he got into a new attack stance, "Let's attack with Shadow Ball!"

Zorua charged it up quickly and sent it at Smaug who easily dodged the attack. Smaug sent a Flamethrower towards Zorua and swept towards the fox with his claws glowing silver. Zorua dodged the flames and jumped up to dodge Smaug's attack before taking off using Agility. A game of cat and mouse began with Zorua adding in his ability to use Dig. Scorching flames and inky dark-type energy went flying as the two attacked one another, Zorua showed that just because he was a first evolution pokemon didn't mean he couldn't stand a chance against a fully evolved one. But there was a limit of what he could do especially with how far he'd been pushed during the last couple of battles even with the rest he'd been given, the way Zorua began to falter after a little while slowly at first showed it.

Zorua's Agility fulled run began to reach its limits which were much higher than most pokemon outside of pokemon like Arcanine and Rapidash could hope to reach. The moment Zorua's black form slipped out of Agility saw Smaug slamming into him with Steel Wing. The scarcely used attack sent him upward with Smaug following quickly afterward to followup with a Fire Punch that sent Zorua back down to earth. Zorua landed harshly, but quickly rose up. Zorua had to move quickly to dodge the follow up Flamethrower and sent a Dark Pulse to get some breathing room. Vali noted the condition Zorua was in and commented, "It looks like Zorua is reaching his limit, Zaria. He's doing admirably, but he won't last much longer."

With how harshly Zorua was breathing and the way he couldn't keep his weight on his right back paw, he wouldn't last much longer at all. The heat was definitely getting to Zorua as well and Smaug's heavy handedness probably wasn't helping much. Zaria looked at Vali then at her pokemon before shouting, "Zorua, can you continue?" Zorua barked with determination on his face, "We may not win this, but we're going to continue until its over."

Vali let out a low chuckle and nodded, "As you wish, I admire the fire that burns in your spirit as the same one burns just as brightly within my own," She pressed a hand to her heart before looking at Smaug, "Smaug, let's end this quickly then so Zorua can get some much needed rest!"

Smaug roared in agreement and swept towards Zorua once more. Smaug released another Smokescreen and caused it to explode. Rather than allow it to fade as it had before, Smaug used Wing Attack and Zorua was revealed barely conscious. It was likely that Zorua would've used Dig to get away from the explosion if his paw hadn't have been injured. Smaug flew in close and used Fire Punch as Zorua released a Shadow Ball causing an explosion. When the dust faded, Zorua was unconscious and Smaug looked a bit bruised though no worse for wear. The announcer shouted, "And Valkyrie Potter-Black has made it into the semi-finals with that win thanks to her Charizard Smaug!"

Zaria returned Zorua as Vali did the same with Smaug. Zaria smiled sadly, "Well it looks like we lost this one, but I'm glad that we managed to make it this far. And seen just how much more training we need to do before facing you again, my friend."

"Thank you for the good battle, Zaria," Vali replied with a grin, "It was a pleasure and really fun. I look forward to our future matches,"

"Agreed," Zaria replied and they both turned away as the crowed cheered their names at the show of good-sportsmanship.

* * *

Vali met up with Zaria when they dropped off their pokemon for a check up. Nurse Joy took their pokemon and Vali led the way over to a seating area as Zaria said, "So you're moving on to the semi-finals, huh?"

"Yup," Vali grinned slightly, "It's going to be tough to beat whoever my next opponent is not to mention the next person, but we'll keep on going until we're out for good," She looked at her friend and saw the slight frown, "Zaria, you did awesome out there. Even if we won against you, you put on a really good showing and were a difficult opponent to beat,"

"Kind of hard to believe that," Zaria looked at her hands which were balled up a bit, "We train hard, but sometimes during this Conference its like it was never enough. We kept getting pushed into a wall and Zorua was almost always close to being knocked out. If Murkrow and Nuz were fully evolved, we might not have had such a difficult time, but they aren't," She shook her head, "No, I can't think like that. It's just frustrating to come so close, ya know," Zaria looked at Vali, "I mean we made it into the top 64 which means something, but we nearly didn't,"

"So make it a goal for next time," Vali suggested earning a confused look, "Make that your secondary goal to help become a Dark-type master, you need to either place high or win a Conference. It might mean catching more dark-type pokemon and evolving your current ones if they can. It definitely means training hard, but I know you'll be able to do it. But make that one of your secondary goals that lead up to the big one,"

Zaria stared at her for a few seconds before nodding and smiling lightly, "Alright, but what about you? What are your secondary goals?"

"I can't exactly answer that right now," Vali replied with a slight frown, "Not with Blaine's apprenticeship up in the air and the whole thing with Steven. Once I get an answer from Blaine, I'll be able to tell you,"

Vali thought about the future war and felt her heart clench knowing that Zaria would probably be caught up in it if only by association. One day she would share the information with both Zaria and Lance. But not now when neither really needed to know, she would know when the time came to inform them and hoped it would be awhile yet.

* * *

Steven walked into the Pokemon Center and handed over two of his pokeballs to Nurse Joy before walking towards them. Spotting the look on his face, she winced knowing that something had definitely severely annoyed him during his match. Zaria saw her wince and glanced towards Steven, "Ooh, I wonder what happened. He does not look happy at all."

"I'm not sure," Vali frowned softly as Steven reached them, "Steven, what happened? You look severely annoyed,"

"My _child_ of an opponent," Steven answered with disgust coating his tone, "Threw a tantrum when she lost. She barely managed to take out Blastoise and put a scratch on Aggron. How she managed to make it so far, I will never know. The sheer lack of decorum and good sportsmanship she showed was unbelievable," He showed disgust, "And then she had the gall the blame her pokemon for the loss before storming off,"

Vali and Zaria gave Steven looks of sympathy having faced opponents like that before. Everyone ended up facing someone like that at some point and always felt disgusted whenever it happened. The trainers like that either ended up failing out, their pokemon being taken away, their pokemon turning on them, or joining one of the teams that popped up. The last two were worst case scenario and most regions working to prevent that from happening. Steven took a seat next to Vali with a low groan and she patted his arm, "Your next one will be better, I'm betting they'll be a lot tougher and more fun to fight."

"I hope so," Steven smiled slightly before eyeing them curiously, "So how was your battle?"

"Vali won," Zaria sighed softly, "But we gave it our all and managed to take out Elrond, Pele, and Arwen in the process," She grinned slightly, "I've got a secondary goal to work towards underneath my main one thanks to Vali. During my next Conference, we're going to make it past the Top 64,"

"A good goal," Steven nodded his head, "I wish I'd been able to catch it, but I'll definitely watch the replay later. Vali, it looks like we're one step closer to facing one another on the battlefield,"

"Mhmm," Vali felt a bit anxious at the thought, "So it seems," She looked at Zaria, "Are you going to stay until the end of the Conference?"

"Seeing as the League is paying for room and board until the Conference is officially closed, I don't see why not," Zaria smiled lightly, "I definitely want to see who you end up facing between Steven and Lance not to mention who'd win between them,"

Vali nodded in agreement since that battle was bound to be exciting. Steven chuckled softly mood vastly improved since arriving, "I'm glad that you'll be staying staying for a little while longer, Zaria. We should train together."

"Maybe we can improve on your training plan," Vali offered earning a considering look from Zaria, "I saw some stuff that you could improve on during our battle. It was probably the same for you. Since we're not competing against one another, we should definitely get together and help improve each others training plans,"

Zaria grinned at her, "I think that would be a good idea. My pokemon need to become stronger if we're going to reach any of our goals and we'll need all the help we can get. I'd like that, Vali."

"I'm sure our partners will too," Vali offered before looking at Steven, "You in?"

"It sounds like fun," Steven nodded his head lightly, "Though I'll mostly be using it to train up Blastoise, I assume you'll be doing the same with Empress and Aragorn,"

Vali nodded with a slight grin, "Pretty much though Idril definitely needs it as well since she evolved just before the Conference, Empress needs to get used to her body though Lance has been really helping out a lot. Aragorn just needs to play catch up."

"So he's calmed down?" Zaria asked with a curious look on her face.

Vali nodded with a small smile as she ran her fingers over Aragorn's pokeball, "Balto and I had a talk with him. We might need to do it a couple more times, but he should be good for now."

"That's good," Zaria perked up when Nurse Joy called her name, "I've got to go,"

Vali waved her off and Zaria shot towards the pink haired Nurse eager to hear about what was going on with her pokemon. She remembered Sneasel and immediately lost her good mood. Steven looked at her in concern, "Vali?"

"Zaria's Sneasel was burned pretty badly during its match with Arwen," Vali's fingers curled tightly around Aragorn's pokeball feeling some revulsion at the memory, "While it might not have been as bad as it looked, I hate the idea that one of my pokemon caused that kind of damage to a friends," She closed her eyes for the barest hint of a moments and only saw the images of Sneasel's burned form twitching on the ground until Zaria recalled it, "I just...Sneasel looked bad, Steven. A lot of its fur was burned off and what remained..."

Vali cut herself off revulsion twist through her stomach. It was all she could do not to race for the nearest bathroom. An arm curled around her shoulder and she found herself pulled to lean against Steven's side. Steven spoke as she looked up at him in surprise, "I know the feeling all too well even if none of my pokemon are exactly fire-types. Aggron nearly killed an Onix once. Just about ripped it in half because it had attacked us, we'd been in a cave system for a couple days at the time and Aggron was the only one that had any rest. I had been injured and Aggron just snapped," Steven's eyes were slightly distant as he recalled the memory, "I caught the Onix and Nurse Joy managed to save it. It's alive, but has a fear of Aggron despite being larger than him by a good foot," He shook his head and looked at her, "I'm sure Lance has a similar story. I'm sorry about Zaria's Sneasel, but it'll be alright in Nurse Joy's hands."

Vali closed her eyes, "I just wish that we hadn't done it."

"But you couldn't have known and fire being as volatile as it is, it was bound to happen at some point," Steven pointed out, "Battles cause severe damage, Vali. You know this especially when it comes to elements like fire. All you can really do is fight hard and avoid killing your opponent," He shifted slightly, "Zaria, how's Sneasel?"

"He'll recover just fine. The burns were pretty bad, but Nurse Joy can deal with them no problem," Zaria sounded relieved and Vali felt tension slip out of her muscles, "What's with Vali?"

"She's feeling guilty about what happened during the match," Steven answered as Vali opened her eyes, "Though I'm betting Arwen feels worse,"

Vali jerked as she thought about Arwen, "Shit."

"You'll have to wait until Nurse Joy releases her before you're able to do anything about that," Zaria reminded Vali making the fire-type master-in-training slump, "But Arwen should be released pretty soon, she didn't seem to be badly hurt from the battles,"

* * *

After getting her pokemon back from Nurse Joy, Vali headed to a secluded area and released Elrond to tell him what happened. Elrond listened quietly before sighing deeply, " _I see and understand the dilemma. But it is better that this happened here than somewhere medical attention couldn't be easily gotten down the road, My friend."_

"Agreed," Vali murmured as she pulled out Arwen's pokeball, "Translate for me while I try to help out Arwen?"

" _Of course,"_ Elrond radiated comfort and confidence.

Vali released Arwen who looked around the clearing in confusion, "Arwen, I wanted to talk with you about today's battle," Arwen's ears flicked back and her head bowed, "Oh Arwen, I know you feel guilty about what happened to Sneasel. I do too," Arwen looked at her in surprise and she sighed softly sitting down, "I put you in the battle wanting to give you a chance to test your strength when I could've just used Smaug or Balto. I could've used Terra or Pippin too. I also could've made better calls during the battle and given you more training before it."

Arwen let out a protesting whiny and Elrond translated, " _But you couldn't have known, Vali."_

"Neither could you," Vali replied making Arwen draw back a bit with wide eyes, "Sneasel made his choice to hang onto you when your attack was hurting him," She reached out a hand and Arwen slowly made her way over to the fire-type master-in-training, "Arwen, Sneasel will make a full recovery. And sad as I am to say this, we would've ended up in this position at some point down the road only we might not have been so lucky to have medical attention so easily acquired," She rubbed Arwen's neck gently, "I know the guilt is heavy, but all you can really do is apologize to Sneasel when you see him and work hard to ensure that you don't harm those we care for. Okay?"

 _"Okay,"_ Arwen leaned into her touch, " _Did we make it?"_

"We made it. I'm not sure who our opponent will be. They'll announce the battles tonight," Vali answered with slipping her arms around Arwen's neck and enjoying the warmth the Ponyta gave off, "We'll have tomorrow to rest and research our opponent. Eager to see who we'll be facing?"

" _Yes,"_ Arwen murmured in agreement, " _Though if I may request some time before deciding whether or not I'll participate in the next battle?"_

"Of course," Vali wouldn't take that away from her, "Take as much time as you'd like,"

Arwen nickered gently and Elrond radiated warm approval.

* * *

Vali watched the screen alongside Steven and Lance to see just who their opponents would be. Soon enough all thirty two trainers were matched up, Vali saw that she was matched up with someone named Felix Ulyss. Lance spoke up with a grin, "Whoever wins your match will be facing Steven, Vali."

"Yeah," Vali stared at the screen in shock, "I guess I'll be facing you after my next battle, Steven,"

"But you'll have to beat your opponent first, Vali," Steven reminded her with a soft chuckle.

"I know, but I'm determined to ensure that if I lose this Conference, it'll be against either you or Lance," Vali replied as she looked finally looked away from the screen towards him, "So I'm not going to let this guy beat me. Don't let your opponent beat you either, okay?"

"I won't," Steven shook his head lightly.

Lance let out a bark of laughter and wrapped an arm around their necks, "Alright, guys! Let's make sure we make it through this next round, we have our opponents and the next day to rest and research our opponents. I say we celebrate our won battles with some ice cream."


End file.
